County Medical Examiner’s office to start charging for testimony in civil cases

County Commissioners unanimously approved to establish fees and hourly rates for testimony from the medical examiner’s office in civil court.

Previously, members from the medical examiner’s office would not charge attorneys to testify in civil cases.

Chief medical examiner Dr. Mario Rascon spoke to commissioners on Monday about the burden that would put on his office.

“This is to protect the significant investment that the county has made in the medical examiner’s office, and making sure that our time is spent where we belong,” Rascon said. “This fee schedule will be in place for interviews, either in person or by phone. It also includes depositions.”

County documents state the hourly fees will range from $175 for investigator testimony, to $500 hourly for medical examiners with a cap of $4,000 a day.

If a medical examiner is subpoenaed for a criminal case, there is no charge.

“There are pros and cons to each side As community service it allowed people access to justice when there were victims of a wrongful death or suing physicians or a hospital, these are their tax dollars at work,” county judge Veronica Escobar said. “(But) there have been extraordinary time constraints that [medical examiners] have had to deal with because there are no fees.”

Rascon said his office would get requests for testimonies all the time.

“It’s rather frequent and it’s precisely because we don’t have a fee schedule.” Rascon said. “My personal opinion is that we get more of our fair share of these calls.”

Rascon said the fees that were established are consistent with standard rate for the industry.