Tailoring questions to the individual issues of the injury claim is a popular approach among Worker’s Compensation 
attorneys (both defense and plaintiff). The advantage is having the doctor directly address only the issues at hand. This approach will often cite specific facts or records and ask the doctor to address how the facts or records affect the claim for injury or compensation. For example, the doctor may be asked whether the injured worker’s statement to an emergency room doctor that his back has been bothering him on-and-off for several months suggests that his current symptoms relate to a preexisting condition rather than to the specific industrial injury at issue.
The benefit of this approach is that the writer uses the question to ensure that the doctor addresses a critical piece of evidence in their answer. The writer cannot ensure that the physician will address a critical piece of evidence if the writer asks a generic question such as, “what is your opinion on whether the injured worker’s current condition relates to the industrial injury?” Using a tailored question is the most effective way to focus the physician’s attention on specific evidence or records that the writer knows are critical to the claim. It also ensures other issues that were previously irrelevant to the claim are not inadvertently brought out by the expert.
The detriment to this approach is that it can be difficult to ask a tailored question that is not leading. In Wisconsin worker’s compensation cases, attorneys have considerably more leeway on direct examination than they would be given in a civil, personal injury case; nevertheless, it is possible that a blatantly leading question could be deemed impermissible. Also, tailored questions can be seen as compromising the reviewing physician’s independence. The expert is being retained to issue an independent opinion and while it is true that the expert, especially in worker’s compensation, will be expected to answer specific questions related to the claim, it is also true that the ALJ will expect the expert to reach her own conclusion and not merely parrot a conclusion suggested in a question. In addition, the writer must be careful when drafting tailored questions that the questions are broad enough in their entirety to ensure that the expert addresses all of the relevant issues in the case.
In summary, the tailored question approach has the advantage of ensuring that the expert will addresses critical evidence or records in her report and not bring other unconnected issues into the scope of the evaluation. The writer who takes this approach should, however, take care to draft the questions so that they are not impermissibly leading and do not compromise the experts independence.
Do you have any advice for drafting questions? Or maybe a particular approach that has worked well for you?
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