Opinion
C 19-02861 WHA
09-13-2021
MARY CALDWELL, Plaintiff, v. UNITEDHEALTHCARE INSURANCE COMPANY, et al., Defendants.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR RULE 706 EXPERT APPOINTMENT
WILLIAM ALSUP UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
The Court provides the following instructions to the court-appointed expert:
1. You have been chosen by the Court to serve as a neutral, independent expert under Federal Rule of Evidence 706. Your role is to assist the undersigned judge by providing an independent medical evaluation regarding the settlement of an ERISA class action regarding insurance coverage for the treatment of lipedema using liposuction. Your evaluation will be used to help the judge decide the extent to which the proposed medical criteria for the treatment of lipedema using liposuction will be fair and reasonable (or not) to members of the class dealing with United in the future.
2. Appended to these instructions is the set of proposed new criteria that the Court wants you to evaluate. You may acquire from the parties any additional information that you need. If you wish to, you may also conduct your own independent research to aid your consideration.
3. The parties have submitted their justification for the preliminary settlement to the Court. The parties' experts have submitted reports setting forth their opinions, including a declaration from plaintiff's expert stating that the new medical criteria are reasonable. The Court anticipates the following schedule. If you have any conflicts with it, please let the Court know as soon as possible:
a. By October 26, you will prepare a report for the Court in the form of a sworn declaration. The main question is the extent to which the new proposed criteria will deny lipedema treatment to deserving patients. This is important because the new criteria, if accepted by the Court, will be binding on all class members and they will not be permitted to challenge the criteria in the future. Thus, if there is some aspect of the new proposed criteria that will be problematic, the Court needs to know before the criteria are approved.
b. After your report, if the parties wish to take your deposition, you must sit for a deposition no later than November 23. The deposition will last no more than seven hours - either all on one day or spread out over the course of two days, as you prefer. The deposition will allow the parties' lawyers to ask you questions.
5. Apart from administrative issues and questions, all communications between you and the Court will be in the presence of the parties' lawyers. You can reach the Court by email if questions come up, if you need more materials, or if you encounter difficulties in accomplishing your assigned tasks. Please contact the undersigned judge's Courtroom Deputy, Angela Diienno, at whacrd@cand.uscourts.gov.
6. Each party will be ordered to pay 50 percent of your bill according to Federal Rule of Evidence 706(c)(2) (though the payment cannot be guaranteed by the judge). The undersigned judge will order the parties to compensate you at the hourly rate of $300. Please send your invoices to the Court via email to whacrd@cand.uscourts.gov.
IT IS SO ORDERED.