Attorney contacted me about lawsuit

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Attorney contacted me about a civil suit about a case filed against the hospital. I was not at fault, but they're literally trying to bring everyone involved. This happened over 2 years ago and no longer work for the hospital being sued. The attorney asked that I meet with him at my convenience and I said I have no interest in meeting wirh him or being "prepped" in any way. I've advised him the people they need to be talking to have MD, NP, or PA after their names, not RN.

I work nights to the tune of 60 hours a week and have zero interest taking time out of my sleep for which I won't be compensated when it's not of my doing. If I must appear in court, I will be in scrubs and sleeping.

What would you do?

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Be expecting a subpoena then.

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Specializes in Healthcare risk management and liability.

Is this the attorney representing the patient (plaintiff counsel) or the attorney representing the hospital (defense counsel)? It is your choice as to if you want a voluntary meeting, but as a fact witness, you would be subject to a subpoena for a deposition or trial testimony if the case progresses to that level.

I am obviously biased, working on the defense side, but I generally tell my people that they have little to gain and potentially something to lose by voluntarily meeting with plaintiff counsel.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

You'll most likely get a subpoena. I can tell you from experience that this is just not a pleasant thing to go thru. Was this the hospital attorney for the defense or the plaintiff's attorney? If it were for the hospital I would go talk to them, it may be a one time deal to just go thru the chart and see if you need to be deposed or not.

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This is the hospital's counsel. The plaintiff has evidently named every person that documented something as a witness, so meeting with this attorney will do nothing to alleviate getting a subpoena.

The risk management department made 2 earlier attempts to contact me and I didn't return their calls. I figure I no longer work for them, they've done me no favors since I resigned and I don't owe them anything.

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Testifying is not up to you. As another poster has mentioned, you can be subpoenaed and forced to testify. If you were someone important, say a politician or rich, the judge might be differential about your time. But as a nurse, he's unlikely to care about the trouble you'll be caused, 60-hour weeks or not.

That said, lawyers have a principle that they should only ask a witness a question when they know what the answer will be. That's to ensure that their client isn't hurt by testimony. That factors into who they call as witnesses.

As RiskManager has noted, its rarely to your advantage to voluntarily meet with plaintiff lawyers. Don't talk with them, and bringing you in to testify is a risk. Do talk with them and you only increase your risk of being forced to testify. Even worse, having heard what you saw and heard outside the courtroom, they're likely ask questions in ways that distort what actually happened, leaving your frustrated and feeling used. Lawyers are often clever that way. I know one legal assistant who spends hours pouring over the other sides emails, looking for something that, rightly and wrongly, can be used to influence juries.

If you're tired and sleepy, there's no need to hide that. But don't let that spill over into hostility. You could then be treated as a hostile witness and face a barrage questions phased in ways you won't like. Simply answer the questions as briefly and clearly as you can. The less you say, the sooner you'll be able to go home. If you don't remember, say so. Also, remember that if your nursing notes are a major factor in the lawsuit, you may be called on to testify about them. Be prepared for that.

Court trials can move slowly, so if you are forced to testify, you might find yourself doing a lot of waiting around. Come prepared for that. You might call the court's clerk in advance to find out what you can and cannot do while you are waiting to testify.

In your case, your first question might be, "Is there a nap room I can use?"

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
This is the hospital's counsel. The plaintiff has evidently named every person that documented something as a witness, so meeting with this attorney will do nothing to alleviate getting a subpoena.

The risk management department made 2 earlier attempts to contact me and I didn't return their calls. I figure I no longer work for them, they've done me no favors since I resigned and I don't owe them anything.

First I would call my and inform them. I would also be inclined to meet with the hospital's counsel. Unfortunately pulling the covers over your head probably won't make this go away whether you had major involvement or not. It totally sucks but thats how I have seen it play out before. Good luck with this I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

This is typical, they name everyone in a fishing expedition. it doesn't matter if you work there or not or whether you feel

you owe them or not. You pretty much dont have a choice.

They will pull your charting, go thru it. When you go in they have you go thru your charting and any other part of the chart they want you to see.

Honestly, there really is no avoiding it and I'd rather go in voluntarily than get a subpoena. If you witnessed something and you charted about it they want to see what you know and see if it jives with other people's accounts.

Good luck.

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Specializes in Hospice.
This is the hospital's counsel. The plaintiff has evidently named every person that documented something as a witness, so meeting with this attorney will do nothing to alleviate getting a subpoena.

The risk management department made 2 earlier attempts to contact me and I didn't return their calls. I figure I no longer work for them, they've done me no favors since I resigned and I don't owe them anything.

Getting cranky with the hospital attorney and ignoring Risk Management isn't going to make it go away.

I was once called in for a deposition involving a patient who was sent to ICU and subsequently died.

I was actually the only one deposed who WASN'T named in the lawsuit, but because I was the oncoming RN who noticed immediately that the patient was in the process of going south and got her transferred within 15 minutes of start of shift, they needed to corroborate my part of the story.

Lawsuits typically play out years after the incident occurred. Did I remember every detail 2 years later? Nope. But you do get to review the documentation before you depose. Did I remember it after I read the chart? Yep, like it had just happened.

BTW, hospital cases rarely go to trial, no matter what you see on Law and Order or CSI. Most are settled out of court, and your part of the process is finished after your deposition.

P.S. It can actually work in your favor-if you get called for jury duty, just tell them you're a nurse who has done a deposition. Tends to make you less than desirable jury material lol.

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I would prob. contact your nursing insurance to give them a heads up as well. Nothing may come of this, but it never hurts to have someone on your side.

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Ah, so it's the hospital lawyers who're interested in seeing how much harm or good you'll do their side. From your remarks, I gather you have no dogs in this fight, meaning that you don't care which side wins. That makes demands on your by either side all the more frustrating. In my one occasion testifying in traffic court, I was happy to be there because I wanted to help the defendant.

I might offer one suggestion from someone who has been there not merely as a witness but as the plaintiff in a copyright dispute in a Seattle federal court that went on for some 16 months. Legal disputes can exhausting and include a lot of hassles that you dislike. You can be pushed about at the whim of lawyers and a judge. You may end up feeling used. A lot that happens may seem unnecessary or even unfair. Let that get under your skin and you'll get even more angry, frustrated, and exhausted.

Don't let that control your emotions. Do what you have to do and let it go at that. In my case, the other side was hoping to win by exhausting and intimidating me. I could handle the intimidation. I knew how weak their case actually was. But I had to be careful not to be exhausted by the endless delays.

You think you have problems, but they were nothing like mine, which costs hundreds of hours of my time. In my case, for much of the dispute I was representing myself and thus not getting a penny for the considerable time I was investing. (I do have some legal training, so the usual rule about not being your own lawyer did not apply.) In contrast, the Manhattan lawyer I was fighting was probably billing his client, the Tolkien estate, about $400 an hour. If I'd let my mind dwell on that, I would have gotten very angry. In the end, I won and one major factor was all the patience I'd shown.

In your case, that exhaustion isn't about the legal dispute itself but in its impact on your present work and personal life. Testifying may mean lost income and missed sleep. But the principle is the same. Don't let this dispute wear you down. Resolve to do what you have to do and don't try to control what you can't control. Getting angry about this and how unfair it is for weeks and weeks will do you more harm than the mere time you spend giving testimony, should it even come to that.

In short, don't dwell on this. Minimize the harm this does to your life.

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Specializes in Healthcare risk management and liability.
Getting cranky with the hospital attorney and ignoring Risk Management isn't going to make it go away.

Quoted for truth. There are ways to deal with recalcitrant witnesses, and you probably are not going to like them.

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