This Month’s Question:
What is a Medical Summary Report and how will it benefit my client and the case?
Physician Legal Consultants Response:
The service most requested by our attorney clients is to prepare comprehensive Medical Summary Reports, that is, a complete review of the case including our medical opinions based on our review of the medical records, our interview with your client, and our review of the pertinent medical literature. Medical Summary Reports can be used in two ways. The reports can be used to help attorneys do the medical coordination on the case. However, far and away, the reason attorneys have us prepare Medical Summary Reports is to include the report as part of their settle demand letters.
As you know, attorneys will certainly have medical records from treating doctors. You might even have a medical summary from one or two treating doctors about their part of the case. We produce comprehensive Medical Summary Reports that synthesize all the medical data and encompasses the entire case including our opinions about ongoing medical problems, causation, mechanism of injury, functional losses, and future medical care & costs for every injury/medical problem, all backed up by evidence from the medical literature. We quote directly from the medical records, accident reports, our interview with your client and the literature to give a complete and comprehensive picture of the case. We make a concerted effort to write these reports in a way that both physicians and lay people understand.
Here are the headings of each section of the report:
Introduction
Records Reviewed
Brief History of Events
Ongoing Medical Problems with Pertinent Verbatim Records
Medical Costs to Date
Future Medical Care & Costs
The consistent feedback we’ve been getting for years is that by using our Medical Summary Reports attorneys are, in fact, settling cases for better value with less attorney time. Some attorneys ask us to write a Medical Summary Report for every case they take in.
Let Us Know How We Can Help You
We Offer:
* Medical Summary Report: comprehensive medical review of client's injuries with medical opinions regarding mechanism of injury and causation
* Review of case validity and value
* Determination of future medical care and costs
* Independent Medical Exam observation and rebuttal
* Evaluating/developing medical theories
* Answer Standard of Care questions
* Answer specific medical questions
* Medical research
* Develop deposition and trial questions for experts
* Attendance at deposition and trial if needed
* Finding expert witnesses
* Attorney liaison to treating physicians and family members
* We do not provide expert testimony
* Fee: $270/hr. payable upon work completion
As you know, we have purposefully kept our fees exceptionally low, allowing you the opportunity to have us review your cases early in your representation while controlling your expenses.
Interesting medical questions and responses to them