Michael Thomas will give a presentation to the Medical Legal Society of British Columbia on the topic of “Obligations and Liabilities Associated with a Physician Acting as an Expert”.

The event will be held at the Terminal City Club, 837 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC.

Michael defends physicians and lawyers, represents people who have suffered injuries that have had a significant impact on their life, and most recently filed a class action challenging the manner in which the new impaired driving legislation has been enforced by the provincial police departments and the RCMP.

He will discuss to whom a physician expert owes a duty to and the extent of his or her liability. Four cases where physicians experts have been sued will be summarized: Worthman v. AssessMed Inc [2006] O.J. No. 925, Mund v. Sovio 2010 BCSC No. 334, Small v. Lohrasbee 2011 Chilliwack Registry No. 022219 and Zhang v. Wong 2009 BCSC 1741. Michael will then open a general discussion on whether a physician expert is practising medicine and why this issue might be of some importance.

Some of the safeguards in place to prevent the entry of pseudo science in the courtroom will be mentioned. He will discuss the exclusion of neuropsychologists diagnosing post concussion syndrome by B.C. courts, and how these safeguards have fared in the context of trauma induced M.S. and inoculant induced autism.

Time permitting, we will discuss the extent to which a medical expert provides a medical opinion v. the extent to which a medical expert is a fact finder; and/or whether there is an obligation on a physician to provide an opinion outside of the specific question posed to him or her by counsel.