top of page

Which Medical Specialties Get the Most Expert Witness Work?

  • 2 days ago
  • 6 min read

Expert witness work is a popular side gig for physicians. That said, we often get questions in our online communities for doctors about whether or not a particular specialty is likely to get a significant volume of medicolegal work before spending a lot of time exploring this side hustle. Below, we cover which specialties are most likely to get a large volume of expert witness cases. 


Disclosure/Disclaimer: Our content is for generalized educational purposes.  While we try to ensure it is accurate and updated, we cannot guarantee it. We are not formal financial, legal, or tax professionals and do not provide individualized advice specific to your situation. You should consult these as appropriate and/or do your own due diligence before making decisions based on this page. To learn more, visit our disclaimers and disclosures.


5 factors that influence demand for physician expert witnesses in different specialties


Why are doctors interested in doing expert witness work?


There are a lot of reasons that expert witness work is a sought after side gig amongst all physician subspecialties. These include that it doesn’t require an additional skillset or new expertise, is relatively flexible, and generally pays very well per hour (often at a rate higher than your clinical rate).


To learn more about expert witness work, read our primer for expert witness work for physicians.



Which physician specialties tend to get the most expert witness work?


There are many factors that go into how likely a particular specialty is to be needed for expert witness work. These include:

  • How likely physicians in that specialty are to get sued

  • How big the specialty is in terms of patients seen per year by that specialty, as this brings a larger pool of potential cases

  • Which lawsuits tend to have higher payouts, as these cases are more likely to need expert witnesses as they’re more likely to go to further along the pathway to trial (see the steps in a malpractice lawsuit)

  • How many lawsuits outside of their specialty (and potentially outside of medicine altogether) may require the input of a specialist in their field

  • How likely it is that a physician in that field wants to do expert witness work



Specialties that are the most likely to get sued


Per the Medscape Physicians and Malpractice Report 2023, the specialties that had the percentage of doctors that reported having been sued were:

  • General Surgery (90%)

  • OB-GYN (85%)

  • Orthopedic Surgery (82%)

  • Plastic Surgery (73%)

  • Otolaryngology (72%)

  • Radiology (72%)

  • Urology (72%)

  • Emergency Medicine (71%)

  • Critical Care (66%)


Notably, while neurosurgery didn’t make that list, that specialty is also often cited in other reports.


Now, keep in mind this list includes some smaller specialties, so the absolute number of malpractice cases may be lower, but there are also less physicians in that specialty available to do that work, so if you are in these fields, you’re likely to get some work. Additionally, higher paid or busier specialties may be less incentivized to use their free time doing expert witness work, which opens up a market for you.


According to the same report, the states that had the most medical malpractice claims were New York, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Louisiana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, New Mexico, Oregon, and Mississippi. Of course, you can do expert witness work across lines, so this doesn’t necessarily change how likely you are to get cases, but may be something to factor in to some degree in your assessment of how many cases you may get as lawyers do tend to seek people in the (not immediate but surrounding) vicinity for both practical and logistical reasons.



What are the biggest specialties in terms of cases seen?


The specialties seeing the largest number of patients might not necessarily be at elevated litigious risk, but the shear number of patients seen by these specialties means that even a small percentage of cases will lead to a significant number of cases.


Not surprisingly to most doctors, internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics are the largest specialties, both in terms of the total number of practicing physicians and the overall volume of patients seen. In surgery, general surgery and orthopedic surgery have the highest volume of cases.



Which specialties tend to have the highest medical malpractice lawsuit payouts?


Again, this is likely not surprising to most physicians, but specialties where adverse effects affect young patients, result in significant functional impairment such as neurological or other permanent disabilities that affect the ability to perform basic ADLs (Activities of daily living), and death tend to have the highest payouts in medical malpractice lawsuits.


These include:

  • OB-GYN

  • Neurosurgery

  • Pediatrics and Pediatric Subspecialties 

  • Anesthesiology

  • Emergency Medicine

  • Radiology

  • Orthopedic surgery

  • Other surgical or procedural fields 



Specialties that tend to appear as expert witnesses for medical malpractice cases outside of their specialty or lawsuits outside of medicine


While lawyers obviously want somebody that is very close in expertise to the lawsuit in question, there are also several scenarios in lawsuits where it’s helpful to bring in physicians from specialties other than the one that’s being sued, or from the medical field, to weigh in on scenarios.


Specialties that are involved in medical care more generally speaking that can provide context on cases include:

  • Emergency medicine doctors

  • Internal medicine physicians (especially hospitalists)

  • Family medicine and other primary care physicians

  • Critical care physicians such as physicians working in ICU type settings

  • Radiologists



Specialties that tend to appear as expert witnesses for lawsuits outside of medicine


Specialties that tend to get drawn into non-medical cases include:

  • Psychiatry 

  • Forensic Pathology

  • Occupational Medicine

  • Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

  • Toxicologists


These physicians are often called in to weigh in on disability, personal injury, workman’s compensation, family court, and criminal trials.



Which physician specialties are hardest for lawyers to find expert witnesses for?


How hard it is to find a physician willing to do expert witness work is dependent on how many physicians are practicing in that specialty, and their relative desire to do work outside of their day job given their opportunity costs, how much they feel they need to make extra money, and how much time they have. Additionally, the smaller the field, the more hesitant a physician may be to testify, particularly against their colleagues, as smaller specialties tend to know each other more, and the more likely there may be a conflict of interest or personal relationship that precludes them from participating.


Some specialties that attorneys utilizing our side gig matching services to match with expert witnesses express are particularly hard to find are:

  • Neurosurgery

  • Pediatric surgery

  • Pediatric neurology

  • Neonatology

  • Transplant surgery

  • Spine surgery

  • Specialty surgeons

  • Niche fields within subspecialties, such as oncologists who treat rare cancers

  • Academic key opinion leaders



If I’m not in one of the specialties mentioned above, will it be very hard for me to get expert witness cases?


Not necessarily. There are so many things that you can do to increase the likelihood that you can get cases, but you may have to be more proactive instead of waiting for an email to land in your inbox from a lawyer searching for someone that meets your profile.



7 ways to find more opportunities for expert witness work

Related PSG resources:



Conclusion


As explored above, there are lots of factors that go into which specialties get the most expert witness work. While these specialties mentioned above may be the most likely to have a cold outreach from an attorney looking for their services, that doesn’t mean that other specialties won’t get lots of expert witness work if they make an effort to be found. If you’re motivated to get involved in this space, we have lots of resources to help.



Additional expert witness resources for physicians


Sign up for our weekly newsletter for alerts about upcoming related free webinars, additional educational resources and more.


Sign up for our free expert witness matching database (physician only) for when lawyers ask us to be connected to physicians willing to do expert witness work..


Related PSG resources:

bottom of page