2004 Pa. Super. 95 - Wexler v. Hecht’s Empirical Analysis
2004
Citation profile
21 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently January 2025
21 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · Sibbach v. Wilson & Co. · Poola v. UNEMP. COMP. BD. OF REVIEW · Laudenberger v. Port Auth. of Allegheny · 336 Pa. Super. 22 - Dambacher by Dambacher v. Mallis
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a) GENERAL RULE.-No person shall be competent to offer an expert medical opinion in a medical professional liability action against a physician unless that person possesses sufficient education, training, knowledge and experience to provide credible, competent testimony and fulfills the additional qualifications set forth in this section as applicable. (b) MEDICAL TESTIMONY.-An expert testifying on a medical matter, including the standard of care, risks and alternatives, causation and the nature and extent of the injury, must meet the following qualifications: (1) Possess an unrestricted physician's license to practice medicine in any state or the District of Columbia. (2) Be engaged in or retired within the previous five years from active clinical practice or teaching. Provided, however, the court may waive the requirements of this subsection for an expert on a matter other than the standard of care if the court determines that the expert is otherwise competent to testify about medical or scientific issues by virtue of education, training or experience. (c) STANDARD OF CARE.-In addition to the requirements set forth in subsections (a) and (b), an expert testifying as to a physician's standard of care also must meet the following qualifications: (1) Be substantially familiar with the applicable standard of care for the specific care at issue as of the time of the alleged breach of the standard of care. (2) Practice in the same subspecialty as the defendant physician or in a ”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage“It may appear that the scope of the witnesses experience and education may embrace the subject in question in a general way, but the subject may be so specialized that, even so, the witness will not be qualified to testify. Thus, every doctor has a general knowledge of the human body. But an ophthalmologist, for example, is not qualified to testify concerning the causes and treatment of heart disease.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“We stress that we do not condone the practice of relying solely on an expert’s curriculum vitae when determining whether he or she is competent to testify. Rather, the better practice is for trial courts to take evidence directly from the expert before ruling on the issue.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.