A state appellate panel has affirmed a lower court’s ruling dismissing a Middlesex County man’s malpractice lawsuit after his medical expert was barred from testifying on causation.
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – The Superior Court of New Jersey’s Appellate Division has upheld a summary judgment in favor of Dr. Sean Li, Premier Pain Center, LLC, and Specialty Anesthesia Associates, LLC, in a malpractice case filed by patient Ira Weissman, who alleged he suffered leg and foot pain following a spinal procedure. The decision, issued December 5, found no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s exclusion of the plaintiff’s expert witness.
According to the opinion authored by Presiding Judge Sabatino, Weissman’s case centered on claims that Dr. Li’s treatment caused continuing pain symptoms after spinal surgery. Weissman’s liability expert, a board-certified anesthesiologist and pain management specialist, was excluded from testifying on medical causation after admitting in a deposition that he would “defer to a neurologist” on whether the surgery caused the plaintiff’s injuries. The trial court interpreted that statement as a concession that the expert lacked the qualifications to offer an opinion on causation.
In addition, the trial court ruled that portions of the expert’s written report contained “net opinions” — conclusions unsupported by an adequate medical basis — and therefore were inadmissible under New Jersey’s evidence standards. When Weissman sought to extend discovery to retain a neurologist as a substitute causation expert, the court denied the request and subsequently granted summary judgment for the defendants.
The appellate panel, which included Judges Walcott-Henderson and Bergman, agreed that the trial judge acted within her discretion, emphasizing that expert testimony on causation must be grounded in specialized knowledge and clearly supported by medical reasoning.
With the expert testimony properly excluded, the panel concluded, Weissman could not meet the evidentiary burden necessary to establish medical malpractice, leaving the trial court’s dismissal intact.