California Medical Malpractice Attorneys

It is common for the experts pro-offered by each side (plaintiff and defense) to disagree as to what should have been done in a given scenario. Accordingly, jurors are faced with the task of weighing the conflicting opinions expressed by the experts in a case.

A typical jury instruction provided by the court is illustrative of this point:

"You must determine the standard of professional learning, skill, and care required of the defendant only from the opinions of the physicians who have testified as expert witnesses as to such standard. You should consider each such opinion and should weigh the qualifications of the witness and the reason given for his opinion. Give each opinion the weight to which you deem it entitled. You must resolve any conflicts in the testimony of the witnesses by weighing each of the opinions expressed against the others, taking into consideration the reasons given for the opinion, the facts relied upon by the witness, and the relative credibility, special knowledge , skill, experience, training and education of the witness." [BAJI 6.30 (8th Ed.)]