Expert’s Report And Addendum Were Sufficient: Under Chapter 74, claimants in Texas health care liability cases must serve an expert report on each defendant. TEX.CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE § 74.351. The purpose of this requirement is to weed out frivolous malpractice claims in the early stages of litigation, not to dispose of potentially meritorious claims. The report must fairly summarize “the expert’s opinions as of the date of the report regarding applicable standards of care, the manner in which the care rendered by the physician or health care provider failed to meet the standards, and the causal relationship between that failure and the injury, harm, or damages claimed.” TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. § 74.351(r)(6).

A report is adequate under the statute if it contains sufficient information to inform the defendant of the specific conduct at issue and provide a basis for the trial court to conclude the claims have merit. It need not marshal all of the claimant’s proof, nor must it meet the same standards as the evidence offered at summary judgment or trial. But it must offer more than an expert’s conclusory statements about the standard of care, breach, and damages. Thus, the expert must explain the basis of his statements to link his or her conclusions to the facts.

In the Texas medical malpractice case the Court of Appeals Fifth District of Texas at Dallas (“Texas Appellate Court”) decided on February 17, 2022, the defendant challenged the unsigned the addendum to the plaintiff’s expert’s report. The Texas Appellate Court stated, “The relevant inquiry here is not whether the addendum itself qualifies as an expert report; it is whether the addendum, when considered in combination with Dr. Jones’s initial report, satisfies the statute’s requirements.”

The Texas Appellate Court concluded, “The Jacksons served a single report from a single expert. They then served a document, in response to a court order requiring an amendment to their expert report, identifying itself as the plaintiffs’ “Expert Report Addendum.” There is no ambiguity as to whose opinions are supplemented by the addendum. And absent a genuine dispute about the addendum’s authenticity, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by considering it.”

The Texas Appellate Court further concluded, “To constitute a good faith effort, the report need only inform Dr. McKerley of the specific conduct at issue and provide a basis for the trial court to conclude the plaintiffs’ claims are not meritless … In our view, Dr. Jones’s report provides a straightforward link between Dr. McKerley’s alleged breach of the standard of care—failing to follow established protocol for treating patients with dyspnea—and Merlenia’s death from an undiagnosed pulmonary embolism,”

Source McKerley v. Jackson, No. 05-21-00050-CV.

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