Shareholder Kansas Gooden is mentioned in a Law360 article titled, “Another Case Raises Fla. Medical Expert Pay Disclosure Issue,” published on November 7, 2020.
The article relates to the case Routhier et al. v. Barnes et al., case number 5D20-1862, in the Fifth District Court of Appeal of Florida regarding whether a plaintiff is entitled to discovery concerning the financial relationship between a defense law firm and an expert witness.
The article cites arguments made by Kansas Gooden in two cases pending before the Florida Supreme Court on this issue: Younkin v. Blackwelder and Dodgen v. Grijalva. The article states:
“During the oral arguments, Kansas R. Gooden of Boyd & Jenerette PA, representing both Steven Younkin and Brent A. Dodgen, told the Supreme Court that its decision in Worley has "upended" the law in personal injury litigation.
The decision has not been applied evenhandedly to both sides, she said, resulting in plaintiffs essentially using it "as a sword and a shield," refusing to respond to discovery requests about their expert witnesses while seeking "a ton" of information on the financial relationships between defendants' counsel or insurer and their expert witnesses, as well as their retention of those witnesses in other cases.
Gooden suggested the Supreme Court should either overturn Worley, rule that the reasoning in Worley applies to all nonparties on both the plaintiffs' and defendants' sides, or limit financial bias impeachment in these cases to what is already laid out in Florida Rules of Civil Procedure 1.280.
The rule permits parties to obtain discovery on experts regarding the scope of their employment and payment in the pending case, their general experience in litigation and percentage of work performed for plaintiffs and defendants, the identity of other cases within a "reasonable timeframe" in which they have testified, and the approximate portion of their work that consists of serving as an expert witness, according to case records.
Gooden noted this was the position adopted by doctors who had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.
The Supreme Court has not yet issued a ruling, and it is not clear if the court will choose any of Gooden's suggested routes."
Law360 subscribers can access the full article at Law360.com.
