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Medical Malpractice Law & StrategyLJN NewslettersNewsSections

Physician Sues Medical Association

By Steve Ellman
June 28, 2004

In the latest legal battle between doctors and lawyers over medical malpractice litigation, a California internist has sued three Hillsborough County, FL, doctors and the Florida Medical Association (FMA) for initiating an FMA investigation of the internist's expert testimony in a Tampa malpractice case. Dr. John Fullerton, a prominent San Francisco physician, alleges in his lawsuit that he was defamed by statements made in the course of an FMA peer review of his trial testimony last year in Hillsborough Circuit Court. In addition to defamation, the suit, filed May 27 in Leon Circuit Court, alleges conspiracy, witness intimidation and violation of Florida racketeering laws.

Fullerton essentially is challenging the legality of the Florida Medical Association's effort to punish doctors who the association believes have offered bogus testimony in malpractice cases. He and his lawyers argue that such efforts by medical groups jeopardize the system of jury trials by intimidating expert witnesses. Doctors groups' respond that when they review expert testimony, they are simply regulating the practice of medicine. Observers expect more such lawsuits as medical groups expand their efforts to sanction expert witnesses.

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