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Expert witnesses must be held accountable for testimony

The medical community continues to struggle with the dilemma of the expert witness who offers false or misleading testimony at trial. How can the "expert" who earns his/her living providing testimony that is anti-thetical to the accepted standard of care and ignores scientific evidence be put in check?

The prevalence of the "hired gun" expert is the subject of debate. Many believe that the majority of expert witnesses do, in fact, come from the community in which the episode took place. No one will deny, however, the existence of the professional expert who makes his living testifying in communities far from his home. Some suggest peer review as the solution to this problem, but there are other possibilities. Before solutions are reviewed, however, we must define the problem.