On December 7, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the directed verdict won by GDLD’s Craig Merkle and Shannon Madden in an informed-consent birth-injury case. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision granting Defendants’ motion for judgment at the end of Plaintiff’s case because Plaintiff failed to provide expert testimony in support of her informed-consent claim. On appeal, Plaintiff argued that (1) the defendant physician’s testimony satisfied Plaintiff’s burden of presenting expert testimony on informed consent and (2) the trial court erred by not allowing Plaintiff to subpoena or compel testimony from Defendants' expert. The appellate court disagreed holding that Maryland plaintiffs need to properly designate their expert witnesses. The court further agreed that Plaintiff failed to show any prejudice from the decision not to allow her to call her opponent’s expert in her case in chief because she had failed to proffer what the expert’s testimony would have been.
