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.
It is truly best to NOT discuss ANYTHING about a lawsuit, deposition, etc., on social media. This entire thread is totally discoverable and can certainly impact your position in this case.
True. I am confused because I thought people aren't allowed to give legal advice here.
Discussing how to respond in general during a deposition, and how not to be a total turd when requested to meet with hospital attorneys/Risk Management is not the same as giving legal advice.
In a legal deposition or court proceedings you cannot decide you will only answer questions about your own charting, you will most likely be asked questions that go well beyond your own charting and refusing to answer those questions is pretty straightforward contempt. It's not a "slippery slope", it's a basic reality of testifying.
She can very well decide that she is only able to atest to her actions..especially 2yrs after the fact. Whats in writing is the only thing she can back. If she feels she cannot honestly answers other questions b/c of lack of knowledge/memory she can Legally state that...
It is definately slippery predicting that she will be charged with contempt and then lose her license.
Again, until she has a subpeona she doesn't have to do anything! And she is well within her right no to partcipate in a legal proceeding that has not named her.
In every deposition I've been in, sticking to that rule would probably have got me a contempt of court charge. There are actually a long list of commonly asked questions in a deposition that can't be answered with just yes or no.
I'm not willing to testify on behalf of anything outside my scope of practice or to anything they don't present to me that I charted about this patient, so any other specifics, I cannot recall or I don't know will be my answer to anything that can't be answered with a yes/no question.
I recognize my care follows me no matter what state I live in or what hospital I work for, but as I said, this case is about an MD's failure to diagnose/treat and their malpractice/negligence, which has nothing to do with my direct care for a patient. If that seems hostile or whatever other term you want to use for it, so be it.
Basically, what they are looking for is that the chain of command was followed. I was involved in a case like this. They questioned all of us who documented. All you go by is your charting.
It stinks, but it is what it is. Personally I would rather go at a time that is convenient for me because if they issue a subpoena it won't be convenient. And they aren't going to come in the middle of the night lol
Good luck, it sucks to have to involved in legal matters. All we can do is keep documenting defensively and follow policy and procedure.
How do you know you won't later be named in the case? That CAN happen, you know. I think it's to your advantage to be prepared for the worse case scenario.
If I were you, I would take some time out of my schedule to talk to the hospital's attorney and risk management. I would at least be able to review my documentation and try to remember how much involvement I had (2 yrs takes it's toll the memory) with that particular patient. Good luck!!
She can very well decide that she is only able to atest to her actions..especially 2yrs after the fact. Whats in writing is the only thing she can back. If she feels she cannot honestly answers other questions b/c of lack of knowledge/memory she can Legally state that...
It is definately slippery predicting that she will be charged with contempt and then lose her license.
Again, until she has a subpeona she doesn't have to do anything! And she is well within her right no to partcipate in a legal proceeding that has not named her.
You can certainly answer that you don't remember (so long as it's true) but you can't on your own decide what types of questions you will answer. Contempt isn't a theoretical slipper slope, I've seen more than one nurse threatened with it by a judge, it's usually warning number two; the first is "answer the question", the next is "if you don't answer the question I'll hold you in contempt", and then after that it's a done deal. I've yet to come across a judge who's indifferent about whether people follow the rules of the court, they usually have fairly limited patience when it comes to that.
I'm not willing to testify on behalf of anything outside my scope of practice or to anything they don't present to me that I charted about this patient, so any other specifics, I cannot recall or I don't know will be my answer to anything that can't be answered with a yes/no question.
I recognize my care follows me no matter what state I live in or what hospital I work for, but as I said, this case is about an MD's failure to diagnose/treat and their malpractice/negligence, which has nothing to do with my direct care for a patient. If that seems hostile or whatever other term you want to use for it, so be it.
It's not at unusual to get general nursing practice questions, which you must answer regardless of whether or not you feel it's related to the case. You can certainly limit your answers to what you know and what you have enough information to speak on, but that has to be explained in your answer, you can't just say "I'm not answering that". There are a lot of tips and tricks that can help you (not just the parties in the case), which is why you might want to reconsider getting prepped.
I'm not willing to testify on behalf of anything outside my scope of practice or to anything they don't present to me that I charted about this patient, so any other specifics, I cannot recall or I don't know will be my answer to anything that can't be answered with a yes/no question.
I recognize my care follows me no matter what state I live in or what hospital I work for, but as I said, this case is about an MD's failure to diagnose/treat and their malpractice/negligence, which has nothing to do with my direct care for a patient. If that seems hostile or whatever other term you want to use for it, so be it.
Do you really think if you get called as a witness you are going to get away with only answering things in your scope of practice? If the case is about the MDs failure to diagnose/treat you will be asked about your nursing assessment, changes in the patient's status, interactions you may have witnessed between the patient and the MD, the behavior of the patient, the behavior of the patient's family etc. etc. etc..
If the attorney asks you if the patient was alive are you going to decline because it is outside of the RN scope of practice to declare someone dead?
Not only that but one of the first questions you will be asked is if you discussed this case with anyone. The answer to that question is yes. And when they ask with whom you will get to tell the court that you posted about the case in an online forum.
Any attorney who is worth anything is going to pull up this thread where you talk about appearing in court "in scrubs and sleeping" and the limits you are going to put on your testimony. A good attorney is going to put you in a negative light very quickly.
You are correct that without a subpoena you don't have to go and answer anything but if you get subpoenaed you will wind up as a case study for staying off the internet when it comes to talking about litigation.
traumaRUs, MSN, APRN
87 Articles; 21,288 Posts
Just a quick word of caution:
It is truly best to NOT discuss ANYTHING about a lawsuit, deposition, etc., on social media. This entire thread is totally discoverable and can certainly impact your position in this case.