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Stony Brook I Homeowners Ass'n v. Superior Court of San Diego County10/31/2000
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
The petitioners in this extraordinary proceeding are an orthopedic specialist and a homeowners association which retained the specialist to evaluate plaintiffs' alleged injuries. In a number of prior proceedings in which he had testified as an expert, the specialist had been unwilling to provide any estimate of the percentage of his forensic cases in which he was retained by defendants and the percentage of forensic cases in which he was retained by plaintiffs. Prior to his deposition the trial court ordered that the specialist produce a summary showing his total compensation for defense work and total compensation for plaintiffs work over the last four years. Because the specialist found that producing such a summary would consume over 90 hours of labor from his staff and significantly disrupt his practice, the trial court further ordered that the specialist provide access to his patient files to temporary personnel who would compile the information needed for the summary.
We grant the specialist's and homeowners association's petition for relief from the trial court's orders. Although an expert must provide such information about his role in prior proceeedings as will permit an adversary a meaningful opportunity to demonstrate any bias or prejudice, precise information about the number of cases in which the expert has testified or the amount of compensation the expert has received is not required.
SUMMARY
In his complaint, real party in interest Robert Diehl alleged that he fell when a stairway railing on premises controlled by petitioner Stony Brook I Homeowners Ass'n (Stony Brook) gave way.
Stony Brook answered the complaint and designated petitioner Gregory H. Schwab, M.D., as its medical expert. Schwab examined Diehl and prepared a report for Stony Brook. On January 12, 2000, Diehl served Schwab with a subpoena duces tecum which required that he produce at his deposition all his "defense litigation-related billings to insurance companies from 1-1-96 to present" and all his "plaintiff litigation-related billings from 1-1-96 to present."
Stony Brook then moved to quash the subpoena or in the alternative for a protective order limiting the scope of records and testimony Schwab would be required to produce at his deposition. Stony Brook argued the request for billing records was overly broad, burdensome and an invasion of both Schwab's and his patients' privacy rights.
In response to the motion to quash, Diehl produced excerpts of deposition and trial testimony Schwab had given in six separate personal injury cases. The excerpts show that when asked to provide estimates of what portion of his practice is devoted to providing expert testimony or the percentage of cases in which he was retained by defendants as opposed to cases in which he was retained by plaintiffs, Schwab, was, to put it generously, less than forthcoming. We set forth the following excerpts as indicative of the nature of Schwab's responses. In the first excerpt counsel is attempting to determine how much of Schwab's practice is devoted to expert testimony.
"Q. And approximately how many of those physical exams do you do per week?
"A. It's going to vary. What physical exam? You mean medical/legal exam?
"Q. Yes.
"A. I don't know. It's varied.
"Q. Do you do more than two a week?
"A. I may.
"Q. On average I'm just asking?
"A. I don't have an average. I don't know.
"Q. How about a monthly average? Do you do at least ten a month?
"A. I don't know.
"Q. How about May 1995? Do
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