New CA Trial Case: Can a plaintiff see a new surgeon one week before trial and 16 months after the exchange of expert information?
Jan 03, 2026
Happy New Year!
New California Trial Case
Can a personal injury plaintiff call a surgeon that he first saw one week before trial and 16 months after the exchange of expert information?
The Court of Appeal addressed this issue last month. Below is my one-paragraph case summary from my online publication California Case Summaries™:
McDonald v. Zargaryan (2025) _ Cal.App.5th _ , 2025 WL 3704598: The Court of Appeal reversed the judgement for plaintiff, following a jury trial, where the jury awarded plaintiff future medical expenses of $1,872,900, past pain and suffering of $2 million, and future pain and suffering of $10 million. The issue in this case was the fact that plaintiff first went to see a surgeon, Dr. Toorag Gravori, the week before trial and 16 months after the exchange of expert information. Seven days before trial, counsel for plaintiff blindsided the defense with a new medical expert with a new medical theory. The trial court denied defendants’ motion in limine to exclude plaintiff’s late-disclosed medical expert, permitted the expert to testify after an expedited deposition, and the jury returned for plaintiff the substantial verdict listed above that the trial court reduced to judgment. The Court of Appeal held the trial court abused its discretion by allowing the surprise expert to testify despite plaintiff’s failure to timely disclose the expert or seek leave to augment the expert list, and the absence of any reasonable justification for the eve-of-trial designation. The judgment was vacated and the case was remanded for a new trial. (C.A. 2nd, December 22, 2025.)
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