Dr. Allen Nichol

Expert Testimony

Having the Right Medical Expert Counts

In our overly litigious society, healthcare negligence cases have become extremely expensive to litigate. Finding the right pharmaceutical expert to review the patient's medical history can be vital to avoiding these headaches, saving large amounts of time and money. In today's environment, selecting the best pharmaceutical expert witness is the starting point for a successful outcome in medical malpractice defense.

With a large number of Americans taking prescription drugs, adverse reactions are increasingly common and many more medical malpractice lawsuits are being brought today against doctors and insurance companies than ever before while the costs to defend these actions have risen dramatically. Aggressive plaintiff attorneys build cases upon precarious links to causation and are quick to accuse doctors of violating the appropriate standard of care, when in reality; damages are often caused by an unrecognized adverse reaction to medication. In order for a complaint to be filed in most jurisdictions, the plaintiff must have an expert medical witness establish probable cause. The defense team then calls their medical experts to review the findings, however most medical experts are general practitioners or specialists in a particular field. They might look to discover pre-existing conditions, but don't necessarily understand the complications that arise from drug interactions or adverse drug events which are increasingly responsible for many medical problems, yet often go undiagnosed. It is more important than eve r for the medical defense team to call a competent pharmacologist to review not only the pertinent medical facts but the historical patient records as well to identify all drug interactions and possible complications. Pharmacological evidence can often impact the difference between "probable" and "possible" cause and may even undermine the plaintiff's causation arguments altogether, proving that the true cause of the damages, were in fact self-inflicted by the patient's own use of a combination of medications. Review by a competent pharmacist can save doctors and insurance companies vast amounts of time and money by dismissing non meritorious cases, while not having access to this information may cause the defense to seek early mediation and unnecessary resolution. Dr. Allen Nichol has strong credentials as a pharmaceutical expert witness. Dr. Nichol is in an elite category of pharmacists who has maintained a full-time practice of patient care in addition to his academic responsibilities which include both teaching and research. His extensive clinical experience manifests itself in professionalism, confidence, and fluency. Furthermore, Dr. Nichol's numerous academic affiliations afford your defense team a strategic advantage.