CARBAUGH v. ASBESTOS CORPORATION
Utah Expert Testimony Exception Discussion

Read the further discussion regarding the Expert Testimony Exception of the Utah Professional Licensing Act and whether it can be applied in the Carbaugh case. This Opinion involves a number of asbestos plaintiffs who sought relief after finding that their medical expert, although a licensed and credentialed physician in other states, was not licensed to practice medicine in Utah.

At no point does the Act include within the definition of the practice of medicine an oral representation that a person is a physician licensed to practice medicine in another state but not in Utah. Subsection (d) includes within the definition of the “practice of medicine” certain representations about one’s status as a physician, which might suggest that holding oneself out as a physician is the practice of medicine, but that section is limited to written materials “pertaining to . . . diagnosis or treatment.” Id. § 58-67-102(8)(d).

A physician providing expert testimony is not providing writings “pertaining to . . . diagnosis or treatment.” Id. Rather, experts giving testimony in a legal proceeding would only orally state that they are physicians licensed in other states but not in Utah; they would then proceed to give their opinion about the physical state of their subjects.

Therefore, with or without the expert testimony exception, it is not a violation of the Act for experts not licensed to practice medicine in Utah to orally hold themselves out as physicians while offering expert testimony in this state. Because offering expert testimony in a legal proceeding would not violate the Act independent of the expert testimony exception, we conclude that the expert testimony exception does more than just allow an expert to offer testimony in a proceeding.

Courtesy of the Utah State Courts

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