Information contained in pages and articles on this site provide general information and does not provide legal advice on any specific legal matter or factual situation. If you need legal advise, seek a lawyer in your state. Use of this site does not create an attorney - client relationship, even if you provide information to us by any means including using a contact form on this site.

© Copyright, 2000 through 2012,  by Leonard  Bucklin. Read the Legal Notices.

Don't miss considering the use of a physical therapist as an expert medical witness in bodily injury cases.
      By Leonard Bucklin

A physical therapist (PT) is a health care professional and can be a extra expert witness for you.  Every state now requires a physical therapist to have a minimum education of a masters or doctors degree from an accredited medical college or university. Indeed, about 20 years ago most colleges stopped offering bachelor's degrees in physical therapy. In 2009, there were 200 colleges offering doctors degrees in physical therapy. PT s of the 21st century are medically trained (and licensed by your state) to make a diagnosis of the medical reasons for bodily limitations, and to evaluate the patient's physical abilities and "functional capacity."

What this means for you ---  A PT may be the person best able to objectively test and describe to a jury the patient's "real life" physical limitations and how they do (or do not) affect employment and daily living.

Important: Since about 1990, most states have licensed physical therapists to:

make an independent "diagnosis" (some state laws use "diagnosis"; others use "evaluation," but the words are interchangeable) of the patient's condition,

make an independent expert plan of therapeutic intervention, and give an independent prognosis of the patient s condition, and ,

make an independent expert assessment of the patient's "functional capacity," which means -- making an expert assessment of how that condition physically affects movements in employment and daily living.

Don't miss considering the use of a physical therapist as an expert medical witness in bodily injury cases. For plaintiffs' counsel it is a way to maximize testimony about the client's present and future impairments. A checklist for physical therapist medical testimony should be in your toolbox of forms.

Defense counsel might ask their own physical therapist to do a functional capacity assessment to be a part of the defense case. Physical therapists are trained to evaluate actual physical abilities no matter what the patient says they can/cannot do. Although our 11 page checklist for physical therapist medical testimony is written from the perspective of a plaintiff's attorney, it also works for the defense which uses a physical therapist as part of the defense direct case on damages. Thus, for the defense also, a checklist for physical therapist medical testimony is useful.

Although many PT's routinely ask a patient to see a medical doctor first (to rule out cardiac or other problems), an MD's "permission" is not required for a physical therapist to see, diagnose, and treat a patient.

When physical therapy is appropriate, most physicians will hand the patient a prescription for physical therapy and tell the patient they can take it to any PT of the patient's choosing. If you are representing the plaintiff, and a physician is likely to issue such a prescription, talk to your client early about a PT that you know that is a good therapist and also presents themselves well and has the other forensic skills of a courtroom witness.

Many judges are not used to testimony from a physical therapist. To assure that the judge admits a PT's diagnosis and prognosis into evidence, you should give the judge a mini-brief on the state licensing law and its definition of "the practice of physical therapy", then brief generally describe the profession of physical therapy, and specifically describe he qualifications of your PT. Judges think they know what a PT is licensed by the state to do, but most judges don t, and most judge s don t know that today the entry level degree to practice as a physical therapist is a doctorate degree.

When it comes to the testimony, do just as you do with a medical doctor, and have the physical therapist testify what his/her health care specialty is, and the training and degrees of the therapist. Discuss with the PT, as part of your testimony preparation, the foundation the law requires, and that it includes telling the judge and the jurors that her practice involves making her own "diagnosis [or evaluation], her own prognosis, her own plan of therapeutic intervention, and her own assessment of the patient s condition. For judges who may not be used to physical therapists as expert witnesses, you also need to have testimony that the field of physical therapy includes determining the patients' ability to be independent and reintegrate into the community or workplace after injury or illness. The PT knows how the patient s impairments affect the ability to perform various tasks.

A legal form checklist for direct examination questions of a physical therapist is available