The 20-minute exam that says your client is fine. You will not talk a hired examiner out of his conclusion — and you don’t need to. Five objectives that show the room how the conclusion was manufactured.
A retained examiner’s opinions are the least interesting thing about him. The interesting things are the file around the opinions: what he was sent, what he never got, how long he actually looked at your client, and what percentage of his income walks in through the defense bar’s door.
The money. How many exams for this carrier, this firm, this year — and the percentage of income that is litigation work.
The file they didn’t review. Which records were never provided, and whether the opinion changed after the “complete” review.
The exam itself. Minutes spent, tests actually performed vs. tests described in the report, and who else was in the room.
The boilerplate. Identical phrases across their last reports — read two of them side by side into the record.
Concede the objective findings. Imaging and measurements they can’t walk back without losing the room.
An outline is a contract, not an aspiration. After the examination, mark each objective covered or open — against the transcript, not against memory. The Deposition Grader runs that audit free, in your browser: paste the transcript, list these topics, and see what actually got covered.
Dismantle the process, not the opinion: the money trail, the records never provided, the exam minutes versus the tests described, and boilerplate lifted across prior reports. The opinion survives attack; the process that produced it does not.
Five objectives: the money, the file they didn’t review, the exam itself, the boilerplate, and the objective findings they can’t walk back.
The exam-minute count. When a doctor who wrote twelve pages concluding your client is fine admits the physical examination took eleven minutes, the report’s weight collapses in front of the jury.
These objectives track on paper. The live product tracks them against the examination as it happens — every objective marked covered or still open, every non-answer flagged with its source page, while the witness can still respond.