The wind blasted me in the face walking from train station to Vinny’s office. Vinny wanted me to meet him there so we could prepare for my deposition the following week. Even though I had spoken to Vinny on the phone a few times, we still hadn’t met and I was trying to imagine what he looked like.
I printed up a map of the area before I left home and I kept pulling it out of my pocket to make sure I was going in the right direction. People pushed by me as I slowed down to look at the map and get my bearings. If this ever happens again, I’m not scheduling a meeting late in the afternoon when everyone’s leaving work. Don’t roll your eyes at me lady. Do I have a camera around my neck? I’m not some tourist, you know.
Walking down the street trying to avoid being knocked over by everyone else walking up the street to the train station, I noticed how some of the biggest buildings have some of the smallest building numbers. I could play this game with my kids all day … I spy with my little eye … something that is one shade darker than concrete, covered by pigeon droppings, written in 6 point type, and is underneath an awning in the shadows. Right! It’s the building number!
Vinny’s building had security screening personnel who were apparently all disgruntled former TSA employees. I had to show picture ID and state the name of the person I was coming to see. Then they had to call the person to verify that I really was supposed to be there. I got a sticker ID that I had to wear at all times while in the building. This wasn’t an ordinary ID sticker, though. It turned red after being exposed to the air so you couldn’t use it again the following day.
The waiting room of Vinny’s office was smaller than I expected. Contemporary design with a glass motif. Old golf magazines and law journals were scattered about the end tables. There was a constant background din of the secretary answering the phone and transferring calls to different offices. “Smith, Jones, Brown, White, Schmidt, and Rubenschlager, how can I help you?” I kept hearing the same greeting over and over again. Literally a call or a transfer came in every 30 seconds while I was sitting there. Sometimes after a night shift and little sleep I’ll answer our home phone “Emergency department, can I help you?” I meant to ask her if she ever answered her home phone the way she does at the office, but she was still in the middle of a call when Vinny walked out of the door.
“Hi, are you doctor WhiteCoat? I’m Vinny.” Whoa. Absolutely nothing like I expected. I was expecting an older heavy set balding guy in a designer suit with a Rolex watch rattling around on his wrist. Vinny was young – maybe a little older than me – thin, tall, glasses, and a full head of wavy brown hair. He was wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. No watch at all. So the insurance company’s “go to guy” is a modern day Atticus Finch. Interesting.
We spent several hours going through the medical records and making sure I knew all of the pertinent facts in the case. He also threw a lot of questions at me and showed me how the plaintiff’s attorney would try to trip me up when he asked them. He also showed me how to answer the questions so that I wouldn’t get tripped up.
I also got to meet the attorney working on my case with Vinny. I had received many letters from Louise over the previous year. Most just advised me of what had happened in court hearings and what the plaintiff’s attorney was doing. Louise was in her mid-30s and thin. Her shoulder length blonde hair was gathered back into a ponytail using a scrunchee. Some of her hair had come out of the ponytail and kept falling in her face, so she repeatedly pushed her hair back behind her ears. Every time she leaned forward, the hair flopped out again. She wore a sharp blue suit.
It was easy to tell that Louise wanted to get down to business. She seemed to get annoyed when Vinny went off on tangents not related to the case. I could tell that she was a perfectionist. She would get frustrated on the spot if I did something she didn’t like.
“NO! Repeat after me. ‘The patient didn’t have signs of sepsis when he arrived in the emergency department, so there was no reason to initially suspect it.’”
Louise had a thing for her pen, too. She chewed on the end, doodled intermittently as I talked, and would slam the pen on her pad of paper to make a point. Normally I do little things just to irritate people like Louise to try to get them to loosen up. Louise seemed like she was wound so tight that she’d use the chewed up pen to stab me in the jugular if I gave her a reason, so I just smiled and nodded my head when she talked.
After a few hours of preparation, I felt pretty confident – both in the care I provided and in my ability to deal with the plaintiff’s attorney’s questions.
“Want to get some dinner?” Vinny asked both of us.
“No thanks,” I replied. “Family’s waiting for me. Tonight’s pizza night.”
“Remember – don’t go researching this stuff before next week. I guarantee you’ll get grilled about it if you do.” The tenor in Vinny’s voice started to climb again.
“I know. I know. You told me that before. See? I listen to you. Now relax, will ya? See you next week.”
““NO! Repeat after me. ‘The patient didn’t have signs of sepsis when he arrived in the emergency department, so there was no reason to initially suspect it.’”
WC, I know what you’re saying here – she didn’t want you to go rambling off into tangents, which is the natural tendency for deponents. I often tell my clients that if the question is “What time is it?”, don’t tell me how to make a watch, just tell me it’s 4:30. But the above sounds more like she’s directing you in what to say rather than letting you say what happened and encouraging you to be more concise. You may want to make that more clear.
“Normally I do little things just to irritate people like Louise to try to get them to loosen up.”
Does this work? Being irritated doesn’t make me loosen up.
Yeah, that’s douchey.
Like dipping the end of the pen in salt or drawing a picture of someone chewing on a pen on the next page in her pad …
It works for me. But then I get a bunch of people plotting on how to get even with me.
That’s how I stay on my toes.
Maybe no camera around your neck WC… but we all know you had one on the passenger seat next to you.
You said something that caught my attention as far as lawsuits go.
But first… I have to say… I just don’t think like this and so I am really getting a mini law education with these posts and comments.
You said “NO! Repeat after me. The patient didn’t have signs of sepsis when he arrived in the emergency department, so there was no reason to initially suspect it.’”
I am one of those patients who will smile, joke, be friendly..whatever and it is misleading for what I might *really* be experiencing. I came in on the stretcher that way and was told to go to the waiting room, but they later found I had pre-sepsis, etc. If I (God forbid) had died of sepsis… then it’s possible some attorney would be blaming the delay in treatment as the cause for what happened to me?
Well how in the world is the staff supposed to prevent something like that? How could they know without labs if a patient doesn’t present at death’s door when they arrive? And if there are no beds in the ED because they are so busy and a pt *seems* alright… how can the DR be held accountable? It doesn’t seem fair.
Of course it didn’t feel fair to me being that sick and waiting so long… but an ED is just that… an EMERGENCY dept. and they take the ones that seem the most ill first.
It would seem you are potentially involved in a game of Russian Roulette with every shift.
P.S. I really enjoy your writing. You really should write a book sometime.
This episode was kinda boring…heh. The tension is palpable, but, your humor makes for great reading.
I wanted to pass in a link…in regard to Docs and nationlized health.
http://www.docs4patientcare.org/index2.html
The lawyers looked as they did because your insurance company paid them as Walmart pays its suppliers, absolutely the minimum. They also are highly motivated to get to trial, because it increases the income to pay for overhead. I do not know how they can break even. If you try to force motions to dismiss, you will get resistance at every step. That is why you must hire the lawyer terrorist lawyer. These losers will laugh at your entreaties. They will not laugh at a legal malpractice specialist.
Here is the best article on preparing for a deposition. Defendants should read it six times, and take it as a checklist to the preparation session with their own attorney.
http://forthedefense.org/CD/Public/FTD/2006/July/2006%20July%20FTD%20-%20Simply%20Positive%20-%20Preparing%20Witnesses%20for%20Deposition.pdf
This one is OK.
http://forthedefense.org/CD/Public/FTD/2007/November/2007%20November%20FTD%20-%20Defendant%20Physician%20Deposition%20Preparation.pdf
Great read.
Thanks!!
[...] 3 and 4 of the ER doctor’s saga deal with his preparation for being deposed, and the deposition itself [...]