Personal injury cases can be a battle if you are going up against the wrong insurance company. There are 39.5 million of these cases every year, so this is all too common in the United States.

If you suffered a personal injury, your lawyer is likely pulling out every trick up their sleeve. One of the things that they might suggest is to find a medical expert witness for your case.

What do you need to know about personal injury lien doctors? How do you go about this search?

This is how to find an expert witness.

Start as Soon as Possible

Time is of the essence in cases like this. You and your lawyer should want to be prepared for anything that the defense has to throw at you. A good way to do that is by making sure that you lock down an expert witness early.

Your lawyer may tell you that you need to find one as soon as you make your claim. Luckily, there are resources for this, such as an expert witness database.

This can help you find an available doctor that is in your local area. From there, you can have them take a look at your injury and see if they agree to testify as an expert witness for your case.

Narrow Down by Location

As mentioned above, you are going to have to find a doctor in your local area for your case. The reason for this is that the purpose of this search is to find someone willing to testify on your behalf. While there have been cases done virtually, it is unlikely to happen now that we are past the pandemic.

What can you do to make sure that your doctor is local? Use the expert witness database appropriately.

Let’s say that your case happened in New York City, and you need a doctor that is located within that vicinity. In this situation, you can narrow your search down to doctors located in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. If you want to take this a step further, you can narrow it down to doctors who practice in one of the five boroughs.

Keep your location in mind during this process.

Ask About a Lien

Before you have a doctor testify on your behalf, you may be interested in using this doctor to take a look at your injury. Doctors on liens are a very common thing in a case like this because a deal is typically arranged between you and the doctor for payment.

What will happen is that a doctor will act like a lawyer in this situation. In other words, they may not ask for any money upfront from you.

However, there is a catch to it. That catch is that they will put a lien on your medical bill, and you will have to pay that medical bill once your case is settled. This means that the first money that you receive from any potential settlement goes directly to your doctor.

You have to remember that this is a doctor’s livelihood, and they want to make sure that they are going to get paid if they do not get payment right away. Putting a lien on your medical bill gives them the safety net they need to move forward with this arrangement.

Ask About Experience

Another thing you will want to do is ask about a doctor’s experience. This is important for a few reasons.

You have to remember that the average career length of a doctor is more than 30 years. So, if you get someone who has less than five years of experience in the field, they may not be taken as seriously as someone who has had several decades of experience under their belt.

Also, try to find out things such as what medical school that the doctor went to, how many personal injury cases have they been an expert witness in, how long have they specialized with your type of injuries, and more.

You may find out some interesting information here that could make you think twice about moving forward.

Meet the Doctor

Finally, you have to remember that you are going to be working with this doctor closely. This doctor could not only be an expert witness in your personal injury case but also the person who could end up attempting to treat you while you are hurt.

Considering that money is on the line along with your health, you need to take this search seriously. That means meeting the doctor yourself and having a conversation with them before you decide if you want to move forward.

Get a sense of what this doctor is about and see if you think this doctor is knowledgeable enough to help you. More importantly, get an idea of if you trust this doctor with your health and your case.

Learn How to Find an Expert Witness

These are just some tips you can use for how to find an expert witness. Having a reliable doctor testify as an expert witness can help give credibility to the personal injury claim that you have.

Just make sure that this doctor is in your local area, you discuss a lien arrangement before agreeing to anything, ask about their experience, and take some time to have a conversation with this doctor before moving forward.

Are you ready to find a doctor? Click here to get started.