While doctors know alot about medicine, they don't know any more about the law than the average Joe or Jane.  This fact became painfully obvious to my client, Carol, (not her real name) yesterday when she appeared for her "Independent Medical Examination" scheduled by her auto insurance company.

First, it should be noted that nothing about the scheduled  neurosurgical examination was to be "independent."  A doctor hired by an insurance company, whether your own or the company of the negligent driver who hit you, is beholden to the company hiring him or her and, if the doctor wants to continue to get examination business, the doctor will usually find a way to flavor their opinions to best suit the financial interests of their client.

Carol, a car accident victim with a closed head injury and herniated discs, was freaked about going to this neurosurgical examination from the moment she received the notice 2 months before.  I advised her that she should, as the law allows, take a witness into the exam room with her for moral support and to later attest to, if necessary, the nature of the exam and the conduct of the doctor.  So, when the doctor's staff told Carol that her husband "absolutely" could not go into the room as a witness because"that is the doctor's 20 year old policy," Carol's anxiety spiked and she called me in a tizzy, ready to leave the appointment and thereby jeopardize her entitlement to continued medical benefits.

I told her to stand-by and I then called the doctor's office manager to inform her of the status of the law in this area.  In spite of me faxing the relevant case law and  the doctor being told by the insurance representative that he had to allow a witness into the examination room, the doctor would not relent.  To the credit of the insurance company, the examination will be re-set with a different doctor and the company will no longer be using that neurosurgeon for examinations.

The lesson?  At every stage of your litigation, you must know your rights and act accordingly and with conviction.  Persons in positions of power and influence are not always right.  Carol was aware, because I told her, that she was entitled to bring a witness into the exam room.  The doctor, not caring enough to follow the applicable rule of law, would not agree. 

Guess this doc, if he ever gets any more exam business, will think twice next time before he banishes an examinee's witness to the waiting room.