Jahi’s family wants her declared 'alive again’

[al66pine]

....I'm wondering how a physician without a U.S medical license in any state can be certified as an expert physician in Alameda County court, or California state court??? Is that possible?

bbm sbm
K_Z
I also wonder if/how Dr M could be qualified in ct as expert witness for this US case to actually testify.

A point re truthfulness and veracity of Dr M's declaration
.... p 133 et seq. of Dolan's linked release "....I was unable to make a clinical examination of this case, because I don't have the US license medical license [sic].'' bbm
I understand Dr M could not treat her.
If Dr. M had been present in US, in hosp/facility/wherever Jahi was, would he have been "unable to make clinical exam" of Jahi,
solely because he did not have license in that US state? And no privileges at the hosp or med facility?
If Jahi's mom, as her guardian, (& Dolan) authorized Dr.M to be there & to examine her, would other licensure issues have prevented him from exam?

Are there issues, other than his non-licensure status, that would bar his examining her (assuming he does not treat her)?
What about DrM being present and just observing?

Ethics issues for other med professionals? For the licensed facilities - hosp, MRI facility, EEG lab?

 

[al66pine]

Dr. D's Declaration starts on page 142 of Dolan's release, discusses using BIS monitor, EEG, Rutgers MRI/MRA, etc

Paragraph by Dr. D.
24. "I flew in Dr. Machado to oversee and review these studies.... I wanted him present ..."
26. "I personally was present at the time of the MRI/MRA at all times....."

From Dr. M's declaration, I thought he was not present to observe any of the tests, he reviewed med records only.
But Dr. D states he flew in Dr. M. Which is it, there or not there?


(Who's on first? Abbott & Costello http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQXwt83hYkE. Transcript: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor4.shtml.)

 

[Hekattee]

I am in the UK, when this story first broke out last Christmas there was a lot of media coverage, and it got my attention. However, this latest publicity stunt by Dolan (who incidentally would make a much better clown than he does a lawyer) has backfired, in the fact that there haven't been any reports on this at all, apart from an article in the Daily Mail last week (a publication which most people take with a huge pinch of salt - it isn't commonly referred to as the 'Daily Fail' for nothing). It's only because I've been following the case on Facebook and Twitter that I am aware of the recent developments...I guess I have a morbid sense of curiosity to see how this is going to end.

 

[Donjeta]

respectfully snipped for space

- Dolan filed a 6-page motion today (served to all parties yesterday) asking for a 4-week continuance to allow time for Dr. Fisher to communicate with DeFina and Machado (who are conveniently UNAVAILABLE, as in, vanished from the earth apparently and trapped in a magic bubble of radio silence until after the "Vote on 46" day in November). He wants Dr. Fisher to tell DeFina and Machado what tests and procedures he wishes them to perform in order to satisfy Dr. Fisher's standards of BD diagnosis.

Seriously, Chris? You can't expect us all to believe that you were completely UNAWARE or UNPREPARED for the scrutiny you would receive, and had absolutely NO IDEA what standards would be put to the test here? And now you need 4 more weeks so these "world-renowned experts" can be properly educated on the world-accepted protocols for BD diagnosis, so they can THEN...perhaps...maybe...do the tests "properly" sometime in the future? I call shens...

Dolan doesn't read his own court papers? There is already a document there somewhere in the previous batch of memos and objections that details the guidelines for testing brain death.

Anyway, why would Defina and Machado do it? One is not a physician, one is not licenced to practice in the US. If Dolan had ever wanted a proper new brain death examination he would not involve Defina or Machado, there are plenty of board certified neurologists who are able to do it right without any instructions from Fisher. If asked nicely, even Dr. Fisher might agree to do it again.

So, the timeline of new motions in the case continues (in the website link I provided above), which began with the $5.50 6 pages I paid for. To make a long story short, it began with a "seemingly-friendly" request from Dolan to almost work cohesively with Dr. Fisher, out of respect for him even, as a hidden ploy to just stall for time. That got served to the interested parties late yesterday, and since it filed with the court today, I'm guessing Grillo looked at it early this morning. .... and promptly told Dolan "NO!" (I'm sure he had a few more choice words, but no was the gist of it.)

Why do I think Dolan's 6-page "Work together like Pea's and Carrots" motion was denied? Because a few motions later, Dolan submits an objection to the appointment of Dr. Fisher as the court-appointed witness.

Wait a tic? First he's asking the court to respectfully allow Dolan's dream team to work like best pals with Dr. Fisher. And now he's wanting to kick Dr. Fisher off the basketball team? Get real. He was told no to his stall tactic, and now he's wanting to stall by forcing the court to consider yet another frivolous objection.

.

That's because Dolan doesn't really want a proper brain death examination done because that would in all likelihood show that Jahi is still as brain dead as ever, and he does not want Fisher messing his publicity up with any facts.

"DeFina, who joined Thursday's presentation by video, said an MRI shows Jahi's brain is intact and that there is blood flow to it. He said tests show Jahi does not fit the criteria for brain death, though he would not say if that means she is in a persistent vegetated state or some other state."


Her brain is 'intact?' Does not look like it to me.

If Defina truly thinks her brain is intact it casts serious doubts in his ability to be an expert witness in anything including the number of toes he's got. If Jahi's brain is intact, why is she not breathing? Why is she not walking? Why is she not talking? Why is she not at school?

You're welcome! Hey, take a look again, hot off the presses!

View attachment 60862
Dolan just requested (and was granted) withdrawal of his writ of error corum nobis. (Meaning, this ain't going to court. It's done.)

Next...he just issued a press release here https://www.dropbox.com/s/nacvrwtpa5w6jqv/McMath_Linked_File.pdf?dl=0

Scroll down to page 3, and read this statement: Dolan said “We would like to take this out of the arena of adversarial proceedings and
into an area of open dialogue and discussion between health care professionals. I’m a lawyer, not
a doctor, it would be nice if the doctors could work as doctors without lawyers involved.”

In other words, he wants to take this case out of the courts and just have it debated in public between the doctors involved. Throwing his hands up in defeat, essentially Star Trek style, "Dammit, Jim! I'm a lawyer, not a doctor!"

OK well if he doesn't want to be involved with this case any more, I can understand it in my heart of hearts.... He's intelligent enough to know that Jahi is brain dead and nothing he can argue in the court can change it. So I'm thinking it can't be such a pleasant task to try and think up new BS that you already know facts would blow out of the water.

But hey, no one forced the family to involve lawyers in it. There is no reason they couldn't have had discussions with as many doctors as they wanted to, only they wanted the death certificate revoked and I think court and lawyers are the only way to do it.

MOO but basically Dolan's problem is that doctors who do their job properly tell the family that Jahi is braindead and will not recover. He knows they're right and feels stupid arguing otherwise.

A few things that caught my attention, page 133 et seq. of Dolan's linked Oct 6(?) media release, Dr Machado's declaration.
Paragraph
6.
He was asked by DeFina of IBRF to review EEG and MRI studies, provided to him anonymously, and
was asked whether she was brain dead.
7.
"....I was unable to make a clinical examination of this case, because I don't have the US license medical license [sic].'' bbm
8.

Do you actually need a medical license to do tests on a legally dead person? You might need it if you want to be recognized as an expert... But what's to stop you from seeing, touching and trying to elicit responses from a dead body? Her family can do it so why can't an unlicenced foreigner?

Anyway, this shows Dolan's desperation level imo. The family wants him to argue that Jahi is alive but it seems to be impossible to find a currently licenced medical practitioner who has actually seen her to say so (probably because she is dead).

"I only worked a volunteer IBRF international expert consultant, examining confirmatory tests of the patient.". bbm
9.
States he was not involved in initial tests for Jahi, has not seen data from pre-Jan 2014.
10.

Why not? I'm sure Dolan and the family didn't throw away the materials. But I guess it might be easier to get a person to believe that Jahi is not brain dead if you don't tell them that according to pre-2014 data Jahi experienced at least two weeks of cerebral anoxia.

I agree with everyone who said this is a publicity stunt. They've achieved all they possibly can for now. There are fresh headlines saying "Jahi McMath is alive" (sometimes with a question mark) and it probably helps with the donations or something. It's not in their interests to have an actual proper court ordered expert do a fresh brain death examination because the headlines would read "Jahi McMath is still dead"

 

[sunflowerchick]

http://news.kron4.com/news/jahi-mcmath-expert-rejects-evidence-of-life-in-brain-dead-girl/

Rejected!

 

[K_Z]

Doctor: No evidence of life in brain-dead girl

A court-appointed expert has told a California judge he sees no evidence that a 13-year-old girl is alive 10 months after a coroner signed her death certificate.

"There wasn't time to react to this letter," attorney Chris Dolan said Wednesday night. "Given the fact that we were up against the time crunch ... I thought that we were going to be in essence sandbagged."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jahi-mcmath-case-expert-rejects-evidence-of-life-in-brain-dead-girl/

Jahi McMath hearing postponed after doctor’s determination

Stanford University’s Paul Graham Fisher, a pediatric neurologist who last year examined Jahi as a court-appointed independent expert, wrote in a letter to Judge Evelio Grillo that the doctors used standards and tests that are irrelevant.

“Overall, none of the current materials presented in the declarations refute my (Dec. 23) examination and consultation finding ... or those of several prior attending physicians who completed the same exams, that Jahi McMath met all criteria for brain death,” he wrote. “None of the declarations provide evidence that Jahi McMath is not brain dead.”

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jahi-McMath-hearing-postponed-after-doctor-s-5810707.php

I love the *drama* of Attorney Dolan saying he felt "sandbagged" by the court's response......like he ever expected the court to not respond entirely positively to his claims. What an actor! Is there a Tony award for "best attorney posturing in the media"?? Weeks! He needs WEEKS to read that note over and over and over and over, and figure out how to "respond". Good grief.... :facepalm:

Almost as much drama as the family starting the "bring Jahi home" campaign, and stating over and over they just want to go back to California. Insinuating that someone was barring them from being in California..... :facepalm:

 

[Quester]

Quotes below from: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jahi-mcmath-case-expert-rejects-evidence-of-life-in-brain-dead-girl/

10/6 The opinion [no evidence that a 13-year-old girl is alive 10 months after a coroner signed her death certificate] was provided Monday in the case of [JM] by Stanford University pediatric neurologist [Dr. PF].

10/8 "There wasn't time to react to this letter," attorney [CD] said Wednesday night. ... [Attny CD] has asked for a four-week delay so his experts and [Dr. PF] can discuss the results and come up with a plan for more tests that would satisfy them all.

11/4 CA votes
​

* * *

The "four-week delay" puts them past the 11/4 CA vote.

Has Attny CD accomplished and received the sought after publicity for his sponsored prop?

Will Attny CD drop JM like a hot potato after 11/4 CA vote?

 

[Donjeta]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jahi-mcmath-case-expert-rejects-evidence-of-life-in-brain-dead-girl/



http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jahi-McMath-hearing-postponed-after-doctor-s-5810707.php

I love the *drama* of Attorney Dolan saying he felt "sandbagged" by the court's response......like he ever expected the court to not respond entirely positively to his claims. What an actor! Is there a Tony award for "best attorney posturing in the media"?? Weeks! He needs WEEKS to read that note over and over and over and over, and figure out how to "respond". Good grief.... :facepalm:

Almost as much drama as the family starting the "bring Jahi home" campaign, and stating over and over they just want to go back to California. Insinuating that someone was barring them from being in California..... :facepalm:

A little preparation goes a long way... It wasn't so hard to predict what Fisher was going to say... Of course he's going to point out all the potential sources of error in the data and everything that wasn't strictly professional.

Dolan has given the judge the results of a Sept. 1 electroencephalogram that a researcher at a medical school in Cuba said showed electrical activity in Jahi’s brain.
Fisher, in his letter to the judge, said the new test was performed in an apartment, not a health care setting, and the recorded activity could have come from elsewhere in the girl’s body or even the environment. Regardless, he said, a flat reading on the exam is not a prerequisite for brain death.
Fisher similarly took issue with the brain scan that allegedly showed blood flowing to Jahi’s brain. He said the test doctors and researchers from the nonprofit International Brain Research Foundation used was incorrect and would not have demonstrated such blood flow.
Fisher also did not attach much significance to videos showing the girl moving her hands and feet in apparent response to her mother’s commands.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jahi-McMath-hearing-postponed-after-doctor-s-5810707.php

He asked the court to let “all of the doctors” sit down and review the evidence together.
“I can understand what a difficult place Dr. Fisher finds himself in as he is the doctor who originally diagnosed Jahi as brain dead,” Dolan said. “We are not seeking to fault Dr. Fisher’s original exam. Experts say that Jahi’s brain swelling would have given the impression of brain death at that time. What we do want to do is to bring all the evidence forward to be looked at critically, and not defensively, as this is an important medical and legal debate which goes far beyond Jahi.”

And these experts are...?

I think the experts fail to understand that brain swelling causes brain death...If the brain swells enough to give the impression in the scans that the blood flow to the brain has been completely cut off on at least two occasions two weeks apart, it tends to mean that the brain blood flow has been cut off, and it has consequences...


It should be simple enough. I don't see any need for all this posturing and conferencing. Just get Fisher to do the tests again. If he's deemed biased, some new neurologists. Some folks in New Jersey if that's where she is. If Jahi is not brain dead they will say so.

 

[Zuri]

I find it interesting that Dolan et al thought that Dr. Fisher had a conflict of interest. One would think you would want the independent physician to re examine these new scans for continuity reasons. I am truly "gobsmacked" at what is going on here. While I admire the mom's faith and tenacity, I just can't help but feel it is so very misguided. JMV

 

[MyBelle]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jahi-mcmath-case-expert-rejects-evidence-of-life-in-brain-dead-girl/



http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jahi-McMath-hearing-postponed-after-doctor-s-5810707.php

I love the *drama* of Attorney Dolan saying he felt "sandbagged" by the court's response......like he ever expected the court to not respond entirely positively to his claims. What an actor! Is there a Tony award for "best attorney posturing in the media"?? Weeks! He needs WEEKS to read that note over and over and over and over, and figure out how to "respond". Good grief.... :facepalm:

Almost as much drama as the family starting the "bring Jahi home" campaign, and stating over and over they just want to go back to California. Insinuating that someone was barring them from being in California..... :facepalm:

BBM. With all due respect that is NOT what the article says at all. It says Dolan felt sandbagged by Dr. Fisher's response. Dr. Fisher isn't the court. Dr. Fisher wrote a letter to the court in which he requests different tests and takes issue with the findings of other physicians of which they are entitled to respond. Dr. Fisher is in California, the court is in California, the statute is California but most if not all of the opinions of other medical professionals are outside California. Dr. Fisher obviously feels his professional opinion has been somehow tarnished and his ego has apparently been bruised by their findings but the Court has not yet had a hearing to sort it out.

JMO

 

[MyBelle]

I find it interesting that Dolan et al thought that Dr. Fisher had a conflict of interest. One would think you would want the independent physician to re examine these new scans for continuity reasons. I am truly "gobsmacked" at what is going on here. While I admire the mom's faith and tenacity, I just can't help but feel it is so very misguided. JMV

Dolan is doing what he feels he needs to do as an attorney in case this reaches an appellate court. Dolan is right to place in the court record that Dr. Fisher is no longer an independent physician because he's already rendered an opinion to the court on which the court based a decision. The Judge may or may not agree with him but his objection is still in the record.

JMO

 

[K_Z]

You know, it would have been a simple enough matter to have the St. Peter Hospital ICU staff conduct a repeat brain death examination, in accordance with standard guidelines and statutes. It kind of appears that all of the "miracle" testing that Dolan has touted since filing his memorandum with the court Sept 30, has taken place AFTER Jahi went from St. Peter to the private home living situation.

You kind of have to scratch your head over that. Especially since one of the videos they are using to "prove" that Jahi is not brain dead, dates back to May of earlier this year. So why the need to involve the medical school at Rutgers to do the MRI.....(except that Dr. Prestigiacomo is from Rutgers....and is also on Defina's Int' Brain Research Foundation board of directors....) Hmmmm.....why the need to have involvement of a Cuban neurologist not licensed in the U.S.?

There are 28 highly qualified, licensed, hospital credentialed neurologists listed on the St. Peter's hospital website, and 7 of those are pediatric neurologists. Apparently, Dolan, Defina, and the family do not believe any of those 27 licensed, credentialed providers are capable of determining brain death?

http://www.saintpetershcs.com/FindAPhysician/

It would have been very, very easy to have St. Peter's Hospital ICU intensivists repeat the standard brain death exam, and enter results onto whatever records they maintained for Jahi while there. So I have to conclude that Dolan, Defina, the family, and the rest of the team are not interested in really establishing that Jahi no longer meets brain death criteria. They can certainly do their own tests, but as Dr. Fischer aptly points out in his declaration to the court, that does not relieve anyone of performing. or repeating, the standard tests, according to statute.

If Dolan's experts don't agree with the standard tests and criteria under the UDDA, they need to work to change the laws FIRST. You can't just ask the courts to ignore, or throw out, the standards established by law.

It was a great PR volley, though. Attracted a lot of attention, which was probably the best they could hope for. And for a whole week, they got to control the headlines and the sound bites.

I also can't help thinking that Dolan's events of this past week are designed to extend beyond the next 4 weeks, and the Prop 46 vote. I think he his paving the road to the eventual civil suit to be filed by NW. Testing the court, the media, and the public to see how they react to certain parts of his narrative. JMO. The SOL for wrongful death is 2 years, so they still have a bunch of time to plan for that.

Who knows-- the whole thing may eventually settle for a big dollar amount if Children's Hospital gets tired enough of dealing with this family.

 

[K_Z]

BBM. With all due respect that is NOT what the article says at all. It says Dolan felt sandbagged by Dr. Fisher's response. Dr. Fisher isn't the court. Dr. Fisher wrote a letter to the court in which he requests different tests and takes issue with the findings of other physicians of which they are entitled to respond. Dr. Fisher is in California, the court is in California, the statute is California but most if not all of the opinions of other medical professionals are outside California. Dr. Fisher obviously feels his professional opinion has been somehow tarnished and his ego has apparently been bruised by their findings but the Court has not yet had a hearing to sort it out.
JMO

BBM. I could not disagree more strongly with that statement. I don't think Dr. Fischer is feeling tarnished or bruised at all (lol!). If anything, I sensed that he was bemused that Dolan's team chose to dismiss/ ignore repeating all of the standard tests for brain death required by law. He was clearly not impressed by the credentials or the conditions under which the psychologist did the EEG-- good grief! Since when do autism/ ADHD/ Tourettes' syndrome counselors do diagnostic EEG's for brain death?? It's absurd to the extreme.

It's my opinion that Paul Fischer can easily hold his own professionally in court against Dolan's team. I don't think they are even on his radar to make him feel "bruised".

 

[Donjeta]

http://www.thaddeuspope.com/images/Fisher_letter_and_Objection_to_Fisher.pdf

I think it's kind of ironic that Dolan objects to Fisher because he's not a brain death specialist and then his own experts in brain death include psychologists. All due respect to psychologists but a psychology degree does not a brain death test specialist make. Also one objection to Fisher is that his research is not focused on brain death... and yet some of Dolan's own experts have not focused on brain death...

http://www.thaddeuspope.com/images/Dolan_Oct_8_pres_releasee.pdf
Who is Mikolaenko?

OK his contribution is that he reviewed the MRI slides and did not see complete autolysis and disintegration of all brain tissue. This is then used as evidence that Jahi has no respirator brain associated with brain death.

Is there any research or even anecdotal material about how long after prolonged life support remnants of brain tissue may persist?

IDK but a lot of this brain looks like it's disintegrating to me
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jahi-McMath-hearing-postponed-after-doctor-s-5810707.php

 

[Donjeta]

You know, it would have been a simple enough matter to have the St. Peter Hospital ICU staff conduct a repeat brain death examination, in accordance with standard guidelines and statutes. It kind of appears that all of the "miracle" testing that Dolan has touted since filing his memorandum with the court Sept 30, has taken place AFTER Jahi went from St. Peter to the private home living situation.

It's possible they did but the results were not of the family's liking.
This whole thing smacks of doctor shopping to me, only problem is that nobody who is concerned of their medical reputation is prepared to examine her and say that she isn't brain dead afterward.... (Just MOO but Dolan knows as well as anybody that the word of a couple of certified neurologists who did the same tests as Fisher did and got different results would carry a lot more weight than a number of irrelevant tests conducted by people who aren't even physicians.

ETA: http://www.thaddeuspope.com/images/McMath_Linked_File.pdf
Defina states that Dolan told him the New Jersey facility did not conduct tests because they didn't want to be drawn into the public controversy. (not sure why conducting tests would automatically mean you're drawn into a public controversy, aren't they confidential?)

 

[TJL]

Dolan writes: "it would be nice if the doctors could work as doctors without lawyers involved"

The physicians so badly maligned and harassed by this family and their lawyer will probably have skywriters posting this over the skies of the US.

I know, right? This was an obvious stab at the healthcare system to paint a layman's picture that this sort of "problem" will never go away unless "doctors stop acting like little children, where lawyers then step in and act like the grown-ups."

The play here is he hopes it invokes a reaction in those same layman voters who will take that emotional response straight to the ballot and vote yes on Prop46.

Otherwise, him saying he wishes this sort of thing could be handled purely by doctors without lawyer involvement, would be the same as a doctor saying, "I wish we could just let parents have all the medical supplies and equipment they need to perform triple-bypass surgeries in their own home - then we would have to be bothered by providing those types of services at a hospital." Or, in other words, lawyers don't go around truly hoping to be put out of a job.

 

[TJL]

...takes issue with the findings of other physicians of which they are entitled to respond.

Correction. NONE of the people on Dolan's expert list of witnesses who performed or commented on the tests, are physicians. Not a single one. Not DeFina (he has a PhD from a diploma mill, so even that is shady, and a PhD is NOT an MD, but rather, receives the academic courtesy title of "Doctor"). Not the psychologist who did the EEG. And not Machado. To be counted as an expert witness in the country of courts you are testifying, you must actually meet that country's standards for the position you are testifying as. If he wants to be counted as a physician in a court of law in the U.S., or California for that matter, then he better get either an MD here, or licensed here.

Fischer (the only MD - physician - involved here), takes about as much issue with their findings as a rocket scientist would with a cub scout launching a paper airplane.

Dr. Fisher obviously feels his professional opinion has been somehow tarnished and his ego has apparently been bruised by their findings but the Court has not yet had a hearing to sort it out.

I imagine he was as bruised by their findings as Machado's CV in Comic Sans. In other words, it was probably akin to opening the National Enquirer and seeing his face photoshopped onto an alien's body: it was comedic to him, and he merely responded enough to let the world know he's not really half-alien.

JMO

 

[Donjeta]

Correction. NONE of the people on Dolan's expert list of witnesses who performed or commented on the tests, are physicians. Not a single one. Not DeFina (he has a PhD from a diploma mill, so even that is shady, and a PhD is NOT an MD, but rather, receives the academic courtesy title of "Doctor"). Not the psychologist who did the EEG. And not Machado. To be counted as an expert witness in the country of courts you are testifying, you must actually meet that country's standards for the position you are testifying as. If he wants to be counted as a physician in a court of law in the U.S., or California for that matter, then he better get either an MD here, or licensed here.

Fischer (the only MD - physician - involved here), takes about as much issue with their findings as a rocket scientist would with a cub scout launching a paper airplane.

I imagine he was as bruised by their findings as Machado's CV in Comic Sans. In other words, it was probably akin to opening the National Enquirer and seeing his face photoshopped onto an alien's body: it was comedic to him, and he merely responded enough to let the world know he's not really half-alien.

JMO

According to their CV's Shewmon, Mihalenko and Prestigiacomo are physicians.

 

[Spangle]

BBM. With all due respect that is NOT what the article says at all. It says Dolan felt sandbagged by Dr. Fisher's response. Dr. Fisher isn't the court. Dr. Fisher wrote a letter to the court in which he requests different tests and takes issue with the findings of other physicians of which they are entitled to respond. Dr. Fisher is in California, the court is in California, the statute is California but most if not all of the opinions of other medical professionals are outside California. Dr. Fisher obviously feels his professional opinion has been somehow tarnished and his ego has apparently been bruised by their findings but the Court has not yet had a hearing to sort it out.

JMO

The fact that he used sandbagged shows he is acting. He already knows what the State of Cali uses to determine BD, and he did not attempt to refute those findings. Hence, he did not put forth evidences disputing BD. Dr. Fisher's response was just stating the obvious. No surprise or sandbagging.

If Dolan was serious about this case, he would have had ALL the tests that Cali uses to determine BD, and have them done by qualified persons and submitted the results as evidence. As an experienced lawyer, he knows who is qualified to be an expert witness and who isn't. He knows his 'team' doesn't met the qualifications.

 

[TJL]

Dolan is doing what he feels he needs to do as an attorney in case this reaches an appellate court. Dolan is right to place in the court record that Dr. Fisher is no longer an independent physician because he's already rendered an opinion to the court on which the court based a decision. The Judge may or may not agree with him but his objection is still in the record.

JMO

Listen, Dolan is not an idiot. He's been a lawyer a day or two and has played this system that entire time. If he knew this case had a spot in an appellate court, then that's where he would have taken it instead of throwing the hail mary "writ of error corum nobis" to the same court whose decision he was trying to get overturned. Because that's normally how an appeals process works: you don't like a court's decision or think it's wrong, you appeal to the next higher court - NOT the same court. Writ of error corum nobis was invented as a hail mary when even the lawyer realizes there's virtually no hope of this being heard anywhere else.

He knew what Grillo's response would be (see above about being a lawyer for a day or two), in that Grillo suggested it was the wrong sort of filing, in the wrong court. Experienced attorneys, with a team of over 50 other lawyers and god knows how many interns, don't make a mistake similar to parking in a handicapped spot because he didn't "see the painted wheelchair on the pavement". Being told - in the media, no doubt - that you knocked on the wrong door with a death notice, was not at all a surprise to Dolan. He knew that was coming. He knew he was in the wrong place, with the wrong documents, at the wrong time (way too late).

Appeals court? Pffft. It seems to me you're the only one who thinks this has a shot ANYWHERE other than the court of public opinion. An appeals court would have been the step LAST week, if it had a shot at all.