III Using the Client's Statements to the Treating Physician Made for Purposes of Treatment and Diagnosis

• Library: The Direct Examination of the Plaintiff's Treating Physician (2017 Ed.)

III. USING THE CLIENT'S STATEMENTS TO THE TREATING PHYSICIAN MADE FOR PURPOSES OF TREATMENT AND DIAGNOSIS

As discussed in the preceding section, the treating physician will receive from your client information that will strengthen both the liability and damages aspects of the plaintiff's case. At the first visit, the physician will typically take a detailed history. Thus, the physician will hear how the accident occurred, the force of the impact and other details that may explain the mechanism of the injury. Moreover, the history will include the plaintiff's explanation of symptoms experienced after the collision and the care and treatment rendered in the time leading up to the visit to the testifying physician.

Most of the statements made by the client to the treating physician are offered, at least in part, for the truth of the matter asserted. If the physician explains to the jury that the plaintiff told the physician that he heard a loud crash before being rendered unconscious, this evidence is offered to demonstrate the violence of the collision and its injurious effect on the plaintiff. In this...