FMA Seeks Certification Requirement for Out-of-State MedMal Experts

Among the goals of the Florida Medical Association for Florida's 2006 legislative session is enactment of a certification requirement for out-of-state medical malpractice experts, according to a report in Saturday's Naples Daily News. The proposal is not to screen the knowledge, qualifications, or experience of out-of-state physicians in advance: certification would apparently require only proof of the physician's good standing in some other state, along with payment of a $50 fee. The idea, as FMA candidly acknowledges, is more to enable the imposition of after-the-fact professional sanctions on out-of-state experts who testify in a manner of which the Florida Board of Medicine disapproves.

We will be soon be unveiling the next installment in our series of posts arguing that imposing professional sanctions for disfavored expert physician testimony cannot readily be distinguished, in any conceptually principled way, from ordinary witness tampering.