How Clinicians Become Trusted Medical Expert Witnesses

Ever wondered how clinicians turn real-world care into credible legal insight without trading their stethoscope for a suit? We sit down with Dr. Jordan Romano—internist, hospitalist, and founder of a national expert witness agency—to map the clearest path from the exam room to expert review, and explain why most of the value happens long before anyone steps into a courtroom. If you’ve pictured endless trials and cross-exams, you’ll be surprised: the real work lives in record review, reasoned opinions, and clear conversations with counsel.

We dig into who qualifies as a medical expert witness, why active clinical practice builds credibility, and how attorneys evaluate “reasonableness” under same or similar circumstances. Dr. Romano breaks down the cadence of cases, from initial calls and medical records to written opinions, Zoom depositions, and the rare trial day. He shares practical timelines, realistic deposition rates, and why patience is essential as cases unfold over months or years. We also highlight what makes an expert stand out: precise writing, fast but careful follow-up, and steady communication that turns one good case into the next referral.

The conversation hits an unexpected payoff: doing this work makes you a better clinician. Reading where care went sideways sharpens diagnostic thinking, risk management, and documentation. We talk through actionable documentation upgrades—objective measures, clear rationale, and future care planning—that help patients and reduce friction when legal questions arise. If you have a niche—spine injuries, rehab outcomes, sports trauma—there’s room to contribute ethically and effectively, especially with agency support for billing, logistics, and attorney introductions.

Curious to try one case and see how it fits your schedule? Press play to learn the steps, common pitfalls, and habits that build trust with attorneys while strengthening your practice. If this episode helps, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a review with the one question you still have—we might answer it on a future episode.

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Transcript

Meet Dr. Jordan Romano

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Marketing 101 for chiropractors. We got a cool guest this week, something way different, but I think really important for all chiropractors. Thanks for joining us, Jordan Romano.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

How's it going? I I see you have a winter beard going uh based on your intro. I love it. I just shaved mine off this morning for for the podcast. So here we are.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Yeah, this is going on from Halloween costume. I should probably get rid of it. Um thanks for being on the show. I liked your um email that you sent to me about hey, I'd love to be on your show. Uh, just a completely different uh piece of practice that I think a lot of doctors can can hear this and learn more about all the opportunities that are really out there for us as clinicians out there. And you've been running with this. Tell us a little bit what you do. How did you get into this, and how you're helping doctors move forward with this in practice?

Entering Medical Expert Witnessing

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Sure. So uh I suspect we're we're here to talk about medical expert witnessing. Um so again, my name's Dr. Jordan Romano. I'm an internist and hospitalist, which I suspect most of your viewers know what that is. I practice uh in the hospital. Uh I trained at Dartmouth. I spent 14 years, uh, these are like CV high highlights, 14 years at Mass General in Harvard. I'm now faculty at Tufts Medical Center. So I've been in Boston for the majority of my clinical practice. And uh roughly 12 years ago, just by serendipity, one of my I bumped into one of my colleagues and he he looked a little haggard and and he said, um, oh, I've got this case I'm trying to work on. And that led to a discussion and and an entry into the world of uh testifying and being part of medical malpractice cases as an expert witness. Um I now run a agency that helps uh all sorts of expert witnesses. I would say the vast majority of them, I don't have an exact percentage, but the vast majority of them are clinical providers. But there are some interesting, uh, you know, interesting individuals. I have a uh golf cart injury expert witness who knows golf uh golf carts like the back of his hand and testifies in those sorts of cases. A latter expert comes to mind. So uh medical expert witness.com is a marketing agency uh as well as a practice management agency, uh, if you will, rolled into one. So I'm a firm believer that clinicians, I'm a clinician first. Uh so are the vast majority of the expert witnesses who participate in this very important work. And so I've over time developed my own structure of how do I have somebody handle all the stuff, the billing, the collecting uh records, and also getting me introduced to attorneys. Um, I took my system and now I offer that to hundreds of other individuals. And we service hundreds of expert witnesses around the country and have interacted with hundreds of attorneys around the country, and it's been it's been fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

That's great. Um, what what classifies someone as an expert witness? How do they even get started as a clinician?

What Makes An Expert Witness

SPEAKER_01 3:16

That's a great question. So typically you need to be, you need to have a specialty. I mean, technically anybody can be an expert in in their field in the sense that, you know, if you've been there are plumbers who are expert witnesses, there are tax specialists who are expert witnesses. When it when it comes to medical malpractice, think of the hospital or the outpatient setting and think of any clinical provider. Uh and what we're talking about here is uh specifically with medical malpractice, there is a lawsuit. Um, there are two sides to that lawsuit. There's the defense, uh, which is the uh who are defending the providers, and that's usually also includes an insurance company. Uh, and that includes the plaintiff, the person, the aggrieved, or or the family of the person who something happened to. So the the issue at hand is typically something happened that shouldn't have happened, uh, they did something they shouldn't have done, or didn't do something that they should have done. And there's a a review of this scenario that needs to happen. So these attorneys on both on both sides from plaintiff and defense side are looking for individuals that were involved in the care to comment on just what I said. What is what happened reasonable? Is what happened, uh, would any other reasonable individual in same or similar circumstances with same or similar information at that time have operated that way? And that and that's in a nutshell what what expert witnessing is. Now, you could get into the, you know, if you're just out of residency or you've just started, is that the best time for you to be jumping into expert witnessing? You know, perhaps not. Some people use a benchmark of of you know five years because it's around a nice, you know, rough number. I would say at least a year or so under your belt. That being said, there are unique circumstances. Uh, there are individuals that I know that do in expert witnessing that, you know, have helped a had a family member who was uh a lawyer, and so they've had exposure to it. So they might be a little bit more prepared for it. And and part of the reason also is this is an add-on in addition to your clinical work. And so just from a time commitment standpoint, typically when you're newer in your career, you're cranking out the hour. And so, you know, that free time you want to be doing other things, not necessarily uh, you know, burning the candle on both sides.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Right. So as a clinician, um, and you're you're interested in this, maybe you have a maybe as a clinician you're interested in a particular field or niche and you feel like, hey, this this is exciting, or I've dealt with a lot of fill-in-the-blank golf cart injuries, um, pickleball, pickleball injuries, pick pickleball court injuries or whatever it may be, uh, as a chiropractor, as a medical doctor. And then you're like, hey, this this sounds good. They would reach out to you and be like, hey, and there must be a training process on your end to make sure that the uh clinicians are comfortable in in a court scenario, in a deposition. Am I on the right track?

Testimony, Depositions, And Reality

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Generally speaking, I, you know, though what I would liken it to is the first time you went to go see your first patient or the first few patients. And and listen, uh, there are probably scenarios that you don't encounter that often that it's like, oh no, here's a uh, you know, here's a situation I haven't dealt with that that frequently. I I've been doing this for 12 years. You know, when I have a deposition or a trial um that's scheduled, uh, you know, do I still have some sort of um trepidation, you know, and and but but I think that that sort of um feeling just alerts the individual to prepare more. So I I think yes, they're not everybody, what you're alluding to, not everybody is uh in air quotes cut out for this. That being said, this isn't something that they teach us in residencies or when we're, you know, learning to be a chiropractor or learning to be a physician. They don't teach us how to do this or or this scenario. There, there's the rare medical school that may teach it. But um you can in general have a, or at least I can have in general know if somebody is going to be likely to be more successful. You're dealing with at the base level, you're dealing with other individuals, right? You're dealing with other attorneys. Um and I and I think that there is uh a lingo that you need just it's a different language uh and there's a different cadence. Uh while you are looking at medicine, there is a a procedure and a process that needs to unfold. Um, testifying in and of itself, actually, it's something, you know, it's interesting that you bring it right up straight away. It's something that a lot of individuals will actually focus on, but it happens a minority of the time. So testifying in trial, taking all comers, uh, medical malpractice cases, two and a half percent of the time. Maybe you could say in something more frequently, 5% of cases you would be testifying, but it's low, low single digits. When we're talking about deposition, which these days is done in this type of scenario, uh, just over Zoom, uh, for the vast majority of them, we're talking 15% plus or minus 5%, depending on your specialty. It may happen more frequently or less frequently. So you're you're on you're you're on the hot seat, so to speak, in a vast minority of the cases. Most of what you're doing is you're looking at records, uh, a lot of records, uh, you're speaking to attorneys and having conversations about the the clinical scenario, how it unfolded, who was involved, what happened when, and really piecing together uh was the care that happened uh reasonable? And would a reasonable clinician in same or similar circumstances have operated the way that things unfolded?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Great. Great. So for our listeners, I mean you got everyone from all walks of life and in clinical practice here. What um who would be your ideal ideal client looking into that? Like who who are you looking for when it comes to hopping onto your agency and maybe helping them out?

How The Work Actually Flows

Who’s A Good Fit And When

SPEAKER_01 9:09

To be honest with you, I I I don't really um uh select against certain individuals. I you know, obviously, if you are saying uh if you've already done the work, by the way, if you're brand new to already doing the work, that we help everybody across the board. Uh when you're starting, the biggest thing is being patient. This is a that by their nature, these cases can last years. And so the life because the life cycle of them is so long, and because if you're new to this space, um, this is really about being known, liked, trusted, and being available. And if no attorneys, if the attorneys don't it's not too dis dissimilar from you know the title of your uh of your podcast, which is just marketing. When you're when you hang a shingle as a physical therapist or a chiropractor or a physician, if nobody, if nobody knows you, it's hard for them to like you or trust you. So, how do you build that momentum? The the first thing I would say is through patience. Um, if you're interested, you know, we take all commerce uh, you know, in terms of having that initial conversation of like, is it a good fit? I I think, for instance, you know, there are individuals who I just spoke to somebody recently who was a very busy uh neurologist. He was a neurologist, not a neurosurgeon, and he wanted to increase his his expert witness practice. The difficulty was he was still full time, and so he was telling me how much volume he was already doing, and he was relatively new. And I said, Hey, what are you doing in two years from now? And he was like, Oh, I'll still be full time. And I'm like, Well, what are you gonna do when you have all those depositions and trials and reports you need to write? Um, and I think that that's really what you need to look at is it's not necessarily where you are now, but these cases as they build up, they the vast majority of them settle. But if you're going to be deposed and it takes half a, you know, a half a day, half a day plus to prepare and half a day for the deposition, the trials, it's a multi-day process and likely includes travel. You need to have flexibility in your schedule. So if you're not someone who has flexibility in your schedule or can move things around, and and I'm not saying they're gonna call you tomorrow for a deposition. The good news is there's time, right, to schedule these things. But certainly when you get to the trials, you know, I've moved vacations, I've canceled vacations, you know. So I think if you're not willing to have flexibility, um, that that's one thing you should look at. The other thing is just be curious if you're new, because it was, I did not know I would be here 12 years ago. I did not know I would be enjoying this or still doing expert witnessing or sharing, you know, my thoughts on on expert witnessing on a podcast. So I would say uh take it a step at a time, get your first case, dip, dip your toes in it, um, learn and and participate. That that's that's where I would say. If you're already in it and you know you you like it, but you are you're a busy chiropractor or busy in physical therapy, you've done a couple, you've dipped your toes in, you want to do more. Um, you know, my uh agencies like mine are fantastic ways to to amplify uh what you're already doing.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

That's great. That's that clear cleans up the whole picture there. So if you're I mean, if you're a chiropractor and bit in and you've got relationships that you've built with uh attorneys, with providers, and maybe you haven't done many depositions or anything like that, but you've seen your patients go through them and they come back and they're distraught, you know, they they lost a half a day doing a deposition for their case. And and the most common scenarios is that chiropractor, they settle, they set the cases settle, chiropractors are part of the final bill, and we move on with our lives, and the patient moves on with their lives. Uh, but maybe there's an interest on the back end. I I'm interested in so many things. That's why I have you on the podcast. And I always love the back end of these things, and I've built great relationships. I think the some of the best relationships I have are with attorneys in my area, uh, and they're just phenomenal people all around. They're very well-versed, they're knowledgeable about the whole industry and how it works, and it helps my patients get better. It really does help my patients because I can guide them in the right direction on when they need. Um, so if you're interested in that, I am, I'd love to help my patients as much as possible. And if being um a reputable source of information for them in defense, or maybe for other cases in defense or trial, whatever it may be, um interests you, I think that's that's where you kind of call Jordan up and you say, Hey, tell me more about what you do and how maybe I could be a fit.

Scheduling, Bandwidth, And Flexibility

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Yeah, I think you nailed it. I when you do this work, it will make you a better provider for sure. You're looking at all the ways that things can go sideways. And it and and and there's no and there is no blame. I'm not talking about taking sides or you're but the reason you're there is because somebody feels something untoward happened. Whether it was reasonable or unreasonable, that's for the the experts and the the jury and the judge and the lawyers to kind of sort out. But when you're sitting there just reviewing records, uh, and not this isn't meant to be a large part of what you do, it's you know a 10% plus or minus addition to your to your time. Um, but when you're reading about how things can go sideways in your industry, it really makes you stronger. At the at you know, it it is without a doubt the number one reason why I enjoy doing this work. The the other thing is I enjoy uh, you know, probably why you do this podcast, I meet some very interesting people. The attorneys, I I know um I would caution folks to be there are bad actors in in everything, you know, pick pick a specialty, pick a, you know, I I just I just wrote here in an Uber. There are good drivers and bad drivers, right? There are there are pleasant people and unpleasant people. And I think sometimes as clinicians, um the way that we have been taught, or the the kind of uh folklore of of lawyers is probably unfair. And by the way, there's no obligation that you have to work with anyone. So if for some reason you get a call and you don't like the vibe of of the individual on the other end of the line, you are not obligated uh to offer your services for them. So I I think what it's about is curating a team, kind of like what you've discussed, uh curating a team that you enjoy working with uh and participating in this uh as much or as as little as you'd like, but you can do so in a way that is very ethical and very responsible. And I've I've I've helped a lot of individuals uh do that, and I've built a team that continues to help those individuals uh well and hopefully well into the future.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

That's awesome. Yeah. No, yeah, for me, learning the back end. I mean, every time I spend some time, even with this or or spending in the other industry from the other lens of the attorneys, I always come back to practice better. I'm like, oh my gosh, like the the note section, I I gotta fix this in my notes and my plan because it's not helping represent the patient in any way or the forecast of the injury into the future. And I'm not really helping them long term. I'm helping them very short term and always come back better. And when you do that, you help the patient better too, not because of larger settlements, but because of more of a foreshadow or of the future of what they'll need in the future. That's from a clinical perspective. That was one of the biggest leaps I took in a few years ago, was just helping uh with cases and not putting um uh what was it called, percent uh disability on there. I was I was actually trying to measure the percent of disability, 30%, 20%, 15%, 8%. I'm like, where did I get 8% from? How did I get that? You know, so now we don't no longer use those numbers. And it's actually helped the cases uh in that because you're omitting these little factual things that the opposition always focuses on. That's just one example. I could sit here and talk all day, but these little things make you better, and that's why I'm interested in it. That's why you're on the podcast, because uh like-minded people like me are probably listening this to this podcast right to the end because they're like, that's interesting, and they'll probably want to learn more. I hope it doesn't bombard your inbox with uh random questions from a bunch of chiropractors around the country.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

But I I love that I love the conversation and and you should have me back on, you know, the the the title of your podcast marketing. It's it's something I think about a lot, which is, and we kind of touched on it today, which is when when someone doesn't know you in a in a new space, in a new venture, how do you, when you're busy already, right? How do you um engage the marketplace or engage other individuals to uh to retain you uh for your services when nobody knows you and you're busy? Uh and how do you do that in an ethical way when you're when you're providing clinical care? And that's something that I've uh I've you know focused some of my attention on to learn and to really perfect over time.

Why This Work Improves Clinical Care

SPEAKER_00 17:42

I love it. And and you know, the biggest thing about marketing is uh in in all industries, but especially in the healthcare industry, is the number one source of new patients and the number one marketing you can do is still up to today for the last hundred years, uh, referral marketing. When somebody refers someone to your office because they know you and you're reputable, whether it's uh another patient, a friend, a family member, an attorney, or whoever it is. So, what a great exercise you are creating for people or clinicians to go out there and get into the attorney space, get into the uh other spaces, because even these connections are marketing tools because they look at you and they say, Oh, he's putting an effort into his clinical notes, putting an effort into clinical cases. I might want to refer him my next case that comes through and see how his clinical uh skills are. And then that's where a great relationship start. The patients come back happy, they got they truly did get better. Uh, took this long, they were able to close the case because your notes were not a mess and they were used in the deposition well and it represented everyone well, and it was good. Um, so that and that's great. For I think you said, you know, the one year out of uh school or residency, uh, this I think it's a great thing to get into how to get your name out there and connect with the community. And uh you never know when the next referral or where the next referral will come from.

Notes, Documentation, And Pitfalls

SPEAKER_01 18:55

So and you know, it's it's interesting you mentioned that. I don't know if it was Warren Buffett, it might have been his partner Charlie Munger, but he I one of them, and I I I'm definitely missing, I think I'm attributing it to the right individuals or kind of right sphere, but they they said that your next referral, your next work is right in front of you. Meaning if you take care of the patient that you're taking care of right now, uh as you alluded to, like if an attorney referred a patient to you or somebody refers a patient to you, if if you when you do a good job on that, uh, you know, I always tell experts, they're like, Well, I need to get more work. And I'm like, okay, well, tell me about the work that you're telling me about the cases you're working on right now. You know, did you have the best sign of somebody who um you you're also alluding to, how can you tell if somebody's um uh doing, you know, in air quotes, a good job of expert witnessing? Uh, and we could get into that. There's a there's a whole um, you know, what is good. But when when somebody is a effective communicator uh of the the medical legal in the medical legal world, cases beget cases, meaning if you do if you are in being deposed and you can and I ask an expert, hey, has either one of the individuals involved in that deposition you know retained you again in the subsequent year or two or or after has the case settled? And has any of the individuals that were seated at that table or virtually at that table with you retained you? And if they say no, it doesn't mean you're you know that you're you're not good, but what uh because that could be an opportunity to reach out to them, but that's also a good sign, right? Like, but your your next referral is right in front of you. It's the work you're doing now, it's the customer. Sometimes people go move too far down the line and they're like, How do I get more work? And the answer is, you know, you're writing a report right now, or you're preparing for a deposition, or instead of you know, bumping off that attorney to get an answer to them in a week, you know it's only gonna take an hour to get that answer. Do it in the next day and call them up or you know, and just say, Hey, I actually got it done early. You know, I mean, that's the level of of uh differentiation. Uh and it doesn't it doesn't take much to stand out uh because in this day and age, a lot of people are distracted, a lot of people uh are not uh, you know, willing to make the time or or or you know make those accommodations. And and if you're willing to, uh I think that those referrals will come for sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

That's fantastic. Way to go. Any closing thoughts that you want the the listeners to hear?

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah, you know, I usually call it the the oyster effect. If a lot of people are have I don't feel that anybody should be mandated to participate in the medical legal uh testifying uh arena, but uh a lot of times you ask somebody, have you tried an oyster and they make a icky, you know, an ugh face and they're like no. And they're like, or do you like oysters? No. Have you ever tried one? Well, well, no. I don't, you know, when was the last time you tried one? A decade ago. Like, okay, so you so you don't really know, right? Like outside of an allergy. And so what I would say is if you're if they're the slightest bit curious, um, go to medical expertwitness.com. There's a button there to book a call. Uh, you can book time with me. Um, I'm still very uh much to the chagrin of of my team, uh and maybe my family, I I have 30 minute uh blocks, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Uh there there are certainly other podcasts that I've been on that I go into, maybe a little bit more differently. Depth as to uh different angles and pieces of the medical expert witness space. But I'd love to have a conversation with you. It's one of the most rewarding parts of having this business, is that I get to meet providers from all over the country doing all sorts of interesting uh jobs in all, you know, in big cities, small towns, uh East Coast, West Coast, North and South. I absolutely love it. So definitely don't hesitate to reach out. Um, there is definitely no uh question that is uh that is silly or or you know that I'm wouldn't be willing to answer for you.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

That's great. And I mean we didn't touch on uh you know compensation and what people but people do this and they do get compensated for their time for this. So that's that's why clinicians do this um on the side, and they may be called to do it or they may be interested to do it. And I and I know some personally that this is their pretty much full-time job. That's what they do. They they got out of clinical practice, they may dabble in that, and they're more in the expert field now. So there is uh opportunity there too, and for for uh many reasons, we're not gonna get into the details of that, but there is that as well. So reach out to medical expertwitness.com and uh reach out to Jordan. I'm sure he'll answer your questions.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

Fantastic. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Yeah, thanks for being on the show.