The case manager as expert witness.

Abstract

n today’s litigious world, more and more professionals are being called upon to testify as both fact and expert witnesses. Both state and federal law require the testimony of a like-kind professional to establish the standard of care or standard of professional practice. Case management, although not entirely recognized as a separate and distinct profession (as each practitioner must have an underlying profession to qualify as a case manager), is no stranger to lawsuits. More and more, attorneys across the country are identifying case managers as potential defendants in professional liability lawsuits. The most common area of liability appears to be in those cases where case managers make decisions on the basis of cost-savings alone, without regard to quality. Clearly, such an action is contrary to the established standard of practice of both the Case Management Society of America (CMSA, 2002) and the Commission for Case Management Certification (CCMC, 2004). The CMSA, a professional organization, and the CCMC, a credentialing body, share the position that cost-effective case management must include a comparative analysis that considers the needs of the individual client, quality of service/product considered, and the impact on the payor. Should a malpractice lawsuit be filed, naming a case manager as a defendant, another case manager would be called upon as an expert witness to establish the appropriate standard of practice. It is not enough that the CMSA has printed the ‘‘standards.’’ A case manager, available for live testimony, would be required to give his or her opinion, through a report, perhaps at deposition and ultimately at trial, as to the application of the standard to the facts of the particular case. Refer to Figure 1.