On August 27, 2025, Shareholder Cameron Getto successfully disqualified Dr. Trevor Small, Plaintiff’s sole standard of care witness against our client in a medical malpractice case. Based on the disqualification, a motion for summary disposition is pending.
The case involved the suicide of an adult married man whose wife was seeking a divorce. In the case, upon learning of the divorce proceedings, the decedent initially barricaded himself in his home with his wife, would not allow her to leave, broke furniture in the home (including a glass table), and put a gun to his own head. After a SWAT team de-escalated the situation and his wife was able to safely leave, he was placed into custody and involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric department at a local hospital. Following inpatient treatment, he entered a partial hospitalization program and received outpatient treatment from our client, who was a limited license masters level psychologist. She met with this gentleman three times and with his wife once. The decedent repeatedly explained to multiple mental health care professionals that he was not suicidal and was only making suicidal threats in an effort to deter his wife from leaving him.
Between the initial incident and the suicide, all of the mental health professionals, including our client, provided various types of both inpatient and outpatient therapy that included medication, cognitive behavioral therapy and various coping strategies. Shortly before the suicide, the decedent and his wife went on an overnight trip together to the Silver Lake Sand Dunes. On the last day of that trip, the wife told her husband that her decision to divorce him was final. A conflict ensued, and they fought most of the way home until 3:00 A.M. when the wife went to sleep. Nobody alerted any of the mental health professionals that the wife had communicated her final decision to her husband. He later hung himself in the home.
Plaintiff hired Dr. Trevor Small, a psychologist in the Los Angeles, CA area. Dr. Small provided an Affidavit of Merit and was deposed, but it later came out that there is no limited license master level psychology license in California. He had assumed that the client had a different type of license, and as a consequence, his Affidavit and deposition testimony against our client was questionable.
The Macomb County Circuit Court held a Daubert hearing over two days. Dr. Small attempted to remediate prior, admitted errors in testimony, but was unable to do so. During the hearing, it became clear that Dr. Small was unable to establish that he was familiar with the standard of care of a limited license masters level psychologist in Michigan or in a similar community. Perhaps more importantly, he advocated the use of a national standard of care instead of the local or similar community standard set forth in Michigan law. He suggested the standard of care was determined not by what a therapist of ordinary learning, judgment, or skill would or would not do, but instead was determined by the American Psychological Association (APA), a private, non-profit organization of which our client was not a member.
The court held that Dr. Small was unqualified to testify regarding the standard of care for several reasons. First, he was unable to establish that he was familiar with the standard of care of a limited license psychologist in Shelby Township. Second, he was unable to establish that he was familiar with the standard of care in a similar community. Third, he was unable to connect the APA guidelines to any standard of care applicable in Michigan or in a similar community. On these bases, Dr. Small was disqualified.
Michigan law requires that a plaintiff have a qualified standard of care expert as a prerequisite to proceeding to trial. Because plaintiff has no expert as required by law, a motion for summary disposition is pending.
Zausmer
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