§ 27-9 Medical Malpractice - Common Knowledge Exception to Expert Testimony Requirement

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Civil (SCBar) (2016 Ed.)

§ 27-9 Medical Malpractice - Common Knowledge Exception to Expert Testimony Requirement

The plaintiff is not required to use expert testimony to establish the required standard of care and the defendant's failure to conform to that standard where the subject matter lies within the ambit of common knowledge and experience, so that no special learning is needed to evaluate the conduct of the defendant. In other words, expert testimony is not required where the situation is one in which the common knowledge or experience of laypersons is comprehensive enough to permit the recognition or inference of negligence from the particular facts.

The law does not require the plaintiff to present expert testimony to establish proximate cause where the injury occurred soon after an accident; the results are within the experience and observation of an ordinary person; and...