A “major reform” proposed by the Quebec Bar Association and the physician’s provincial professional corporation to regulate medical expert witnesses intends to curb expert bias, eliminate the professional “career expert,” provide new medico-legal training for doctors while in medical school, and create a new quality assurance program to enforce new guidelines, beginning with the notion of who is an expert.
The reforms, outlined in a 23-page joint report by the Barreau du Québec and the Collège des Médecins du Québec, are largely viewed by the legal and medical community as a “step in the right direction” and is widely expected to improve the quality of reports and testimony issued by medical experts before the courts.
“The report establishes a framework to ensure that medical experts work within norms to improve the quality of their work,” observed Robert-Jean Chénier, who was consulted by the working group and is the lead partner of the medical law practice in the Québec region for McCarthy Tétrault LLP. “We have to continue to be more demanding of the opinions issued by experts, and better regulate them.”