jar, first off, sorry to hear about your aunt’s situation - it’s always the people with legitimate complaints that end up getting screwed by the actions of those looking for a free ride.
Paranoid fantasies aside, Dr. Chicago does not want to testify because he’s been asked to. Subpoena his ass and have him deposed. More than likely he’ll cough up what you need under a decent cross. From where I sit, it sounds like it’s your aunt’s lawyer that’s the problem. I’m not familiar with Illinois law, but I am intimately familiar with Dr’s.
It’s not so much a “code of silence” as a code of conduct. Given the rampant malpractice litigation in the US, the AMA frowns upon voluntary testimony against colleagues without compulsion. Due mostly to ridiculous insurance costs resulting from multi/mega-suits. My brother is an orthopod in Seattle, and he’s been sued 22 times in 9 years, and been subpoena’d 73 times in 6 years to testify. You can appreciate why they don’t like to ‘volunteer’ information.
Redtail is bang-on with getting nurses to testify, they seem to have a much better-developed sense of conscience [sub]sorry, bro![/sub] than Dr’s. They make very credible witnesses too.
But it doesn’t sound to me like there’s any problem with auntie’s case that a better lawyer wouldn’t cure. And there’ve gotta be hordes of them in the Tri-State Area.
Shit. This is absolutely insane. It’s times like these you really start to resent frivolous lawsuits beyond “oh my God, I can’t believe they got away with it”–the other reason frivolous lawsuits suck is that they make people wary of legitimate cases like yours, jarbabyj. Crafter_Man, you hit the nail on the head… people have become scared of the legal process because issues of justice like the OP are too often subsumed by frivolities and greed. I imagine the Chicago doctor is at least somewhat wary that helping you out might bite him in the ass in the long run.
[hijack]
My uncle got hit with a $10 million lawsuit once after hitting a car from behind at about 2 mph, and apparently causing whiplash… the husband of the injured party sued him for alienation of affection on top of medical bills because his wife couldn’t sleep with him any more. They’d pulled this shit about 7 times before. My uncle had to cut himself out of his inheritance in order to make it seem as if he had no assets, after which the couple realized they couldn’t get anything out of him and let the suit go. It got whittled down to less than 1 million, which my uncle’s insurance managed to cover (he would have been screwed for anything above one mill), but it still basically removed 3 years from his life. [/hijack]
I am doubly embittered by cases like my uncle’s because they detract from the work that the civil legal system is supposed to do, like get the bastard in Syracuse.
In terms of advice, I don’t know if you actually want to add another headache, but you could also shame the doctor in public. There’s gotta be at least one reporter/consumer-rights-advocate out there willing to get pissed off on your behalf… but knowing the American legal system, I’d be careful of libel.
Well, my aunt’s lawyer is in New York (not new york city), and he’s also got a team of lawyers helping him in Washington. They’ve set some deadlines for getting the info and then they’ll decide whether to drop the case or not.
I guess the problem comes in with them not being absolutely SURE he’s avoiding the case. I mean he just goes “out of the office” every day or, “misplaces the notes” or “has them ready to mail out” but it never happens.
My aunt’s main torture is one she’s brought upon herself. Dr. Chicago is a wonderful, nice man whom she was really happy with, so she doesn’t want to put the screws to him. I guess in today’s world you have to put the screws to everyone.