Maryland medical malpractice the certificate

As I have outlined in the prior post Maryland medical malpractice law requires a certification to establish that the defendant doctor has deviated from standard of care. In order to help eliminate frivolous lawsuits the certification requirement is fairly narrowly drawn. I am offering this post as a final review of a condensed version to simplify understanding the requirements of the certificate of merit.

The certificate of merit must contain the following information.

1. The educational and experience background of the attesting doctor. Pursuant to Maryland statute § 3-2A-02 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article in pertinent part: In addition to any other qualifications, a health care provider who attests in a certificate of a qualified expert or testifies in relation to a proceeding concerning a defendant's compliance with or departure from standards of care:

Shall have had clinical experience,

provided consultation relating to clinical practice, or

taught medicine in the defendant's specialty or

a related field of health care, or

in the field of health care in which the defendant provided care or treatment to the plaintiff,

within 5 years of the date of the alleged act or omission giving rise to the cause of action; and

if the defendant is board certified in a specialty,

shall be board certified in the same or

a related specialty as the defendant.

this subparagraph does not apply if:

The defendant was providing care or treatment to the plaintiff unrelated to the area in which the defendant is board certified; or

The health care provider taught medicine in the defendant's specialty or
a related field of health care

2. The 20% Rule pursuant to Maryland statute § 3-2A-04 b(4)

A health care provider who attests in a certificate of a qualified expert or who testifies in relation to a proceeding before an arbitration panel or a court concerning compliance with or departure from standards of care may not devote annually more than 20 percent of the expert's professional activities to activities that directly involve testimony in personal injury claims. Professional activity includes(1) the time the doctor spends in, or traveling to or from, court or deposition for the purpose of testifying, waiting to testify, or observing events in preparation for testifying, (2) the time spent assisting an attorney or other member of a litigation team in developing or responding to interrogatories and other forms of discovery, (3) the time spent in reviewing notes and other materials, preparing reports, and conferring with attorneys, insurance adjusters, other members of a litigation team, the patient, or others after being informed that the doctor will likely be called upon to sign an affidavit or otherwise testify, and (4) the time spent on any similar activity that has a clear and direct relationship to testimony to be given by the doctor or the doctor's preparation to give testimony.

3. The applicable standard of care

4. The specific identification of each defendant

5. The specific manner in which each individual defendant breached the standard of care. Articulated within a reasonable degree of medical probability.

6. A specific factually based statement as to each defendant and how the breach of the standard of care caused the injury. Articulated within a reasonable degree of medical probability.

7. No Affiliation the attesting doctor must also state: he/sheis not a party to the pending litigation; that he/she is not an employee or partner of any party to the pending litigation; that he/she is not an employee or stockholder of any professional corporation of which any party of the pending litigation is a stockholder

It is essential that your certificate of merit complying with the Maryland statute The courts Maryland have determined that compliance with the requirements is a condition precedent to filing your malpractice action. A defective certificate of merit is an issue that can be raised at any stage during the litigation. As such there is the potential you could complete your trial, win, and the defendants raise a defective certificate of merit issue. To the extent this issue is raised and the defendants prevail and the statute of limitations has expired you may be barred from refiling your claim.