Excerpts from the New Mexico Medical Malpractice Act

Members of the Medical Review Committee serve as members of the panels that review certain types of medical malpractice claims before the claims reach the courts, as part of a system created by New Mexico Medical Practice Act, N.M. Stat. Ann. §§ 45-5-1 through -29.

41-5-14. Medical review commission. 

1. The New Mexico medical review commission is created. The function of the New Mexico medical review commission is to provide panels to review all malpractice claims against health care providers covered by the Medical Malpractice Act.   
2. Those eligible to sit on a panel shall consist of health care providers licensed pursuant to New Mexico law and residing in New Mexico and the members of the state bar.    
3. Cases which a panel will consider include all cases involving any alleged act of malpractice occurring in New Mexico by health care providers qualified under the Medical Malpractice Act.    

41-5-17. Panel selection. 

1. Applications for review shall be promptly transmitted by the director to the directors of the health care provider's state professional society or association and the state bar association, who shall each select three panelists within thirty days from the date of transmittal of the application.    
2. If no state professional society or association exists, or if the health care provider does not belong to such a society or association, the director shall transmit the application to the health care provider's state licensing board, which shall in turn select three persons from the health care provider's profession and, where applicable, to [two] persons specializing in the same field or discipline as the health care provider.    
3. In cases where there are multiple defendants, the case against each health care provider may be reviewed by a separate panel, or a single combined panel may review the claim against all parties defendant, at the discretion of the director.    
4. Three panel members from the health care provider's profession and three panel members from the state bar association shall sit in review in each case.    
5. In those cases where the theory of respondeat superior or some other derivative theory of recovery is employed, two of the panel members shall be chosen from the individual health care provider's profession and one panel member shall be chosen from the profession of the health care provider named a respondent employer, master or principal.    
6. The director of the commission or his delegate, who shall be an attorney, shall sit on each panel and serve as chairman.    
7. Any member shall disqualify himself from consideration of any case in which, by virtue of his circumstances, he feels his presence on the panel would be inappropriate, considering the purpose of the panel. The director may excuse a proposed panelist from serving.    
8. Whenever a party shall make and file an affidavit that a panel member selected pursuant to this section cannot, according to the belief of the party making the affidavit, sit in review of the application with impartiality, that panel member shall proceed no further. Another panel member shall be selected by the health care provider's professional association, state licensing board or the state bar association, as the case may be. A party may not disqualify more than three proposed panel members in this manner in any single malpractice claim.    

41-5-19. Hearing procedures. 

1. At the time set for hearing, the attorney submitting the case for review shall be present and shall make a brief introduction of his case, including a resume of the facts constituting alleged professional malpractice which he is prepared to prove. The health care provider against whom the claim is brought and its attorney may be present and may make an introductory statement of its case.   
2. Both parties may call witnesses to testify before the panel, which witnesses shall be sworn. Medical texts, journals, studies and other documentary evidence relied upon by either party may be offered and admitted if relevant. Written statements of fact of treating health care providers may be reviewed. The monetary damages in any case shall not be a subject of inquiry or discussion.    
3. The hearing will be informal and no official transcript shall be made. Nothing contained in this paragraph shall preclude the taking of the testimony by the parties at their own expense.    
4. At the conclusion of the hearing, the panel may take the case under advisement or it may request that additional facts, records, witnesses or other information be obtained and presented to it at a supplemental hearing, which shall be set for a date and time certain, not longer than thirty days from the date of the original hearing unless the attorney bringing the matter for review shall in writing consent to a longer period.    
5. Any supplemental hearing shall be held in the same manner as the original hearing, and the parties concerned and their attorneys may be present.    

41-5-20. Panel deliberations and decision. 

1. The deliberations of the panel shall be and remain confidential. Upon consideration of all the relevant material, the panel shall decide only two questions:    
   1.  whether there is substantial evidence that the acts complained of occurred and that they constitute malpractice; and    
   2.  whether there is a reasonable medical probability that the patient was injured thereby.    
2. All votes of the panel on the two questions for decision shall be by secret ballot. The decision shall be by a majority vote of those voting members of the panel who have sat on the entire case. The decision shall be communicated in writing to the parties and attorneys concerned and a copy thereof shall be retained in the permanent files of the commission.    
3. The decision shall in every case be signed for the panel by the chairman, who shall vote only in the event the other members of the panel are evenly divided, and shall contain only the conclusions reached by a majority of its members and the number of members, if any, dissenting therefrom; provided, however, that if the vote is not unanimous, the majority may briefly explain the reasoning and basis for their conclusion, and the dissenters may likewise explain the reasons for disagreement.     
4. The report of the medical review panel shall not be admissible as evidence in any action subsequently brought in a court of law. A copy of the report shall be sent to the health care provider's professional licensing board.    
5. Panelists and witnesses shall have absolute immunity from civil liability for all communications, findings, opinions and conclusions made in the course and scope of duties prescribed by the Medical Malpractice Act.
6. The panel's decisions shall be without administrative or judicial authority and shall not be binding on any party. The panel shall make no effort to settle or compromise any claim nor express any opinion on the monetary value of any claim.