"You are hereby commanded to appear": Pediatrician subpoena and court appearance in child maltreatment

Objective. To determine the frequency of court appearance by pediatricians evaluating child abuse and neglect cases and to identify case characteristi cs associated with actual court appearance or case adjournment. Design. Retrospective review of subpoenas received between 1995 and 1999 fo r child maltreatment cases personally evaluated by 2 pediatricians during t he years 1995 to 1998. Information was collected regarding patient age, gen der, race/ethnicity, type of suspected maltreatment, date of evaluation, da te of subpoena, type of court hearing, whether the pediatrician actually te stified in court, and legal outcomes. Case characteristics were compared be tween pediatricians and were used to predict physician appearance and case continuance or adjournment in logistic regression models. Results. Four hundred forty-five subpoenas concerning 260 patients were rec eived. Although significant differences were noted between the pediatrician s in type of abuse, no differences were found in patient age, gender, ethni city or legal outcomes. The pediatricians received subpoenas in <15% of chi ld maltreatment cases, and <5% of children seen resulted in the physician b eing required to actually appear in court. No case characteristics signific antly predicted court appearance or case continuance or adjournment. Conclusions. Although pediatricians are sometimes subpoenaed to appear in c ourt to explain the medical evaluation and the needs of the child in cases of child abuse and neglect, most court cases were continued, adjourned, or settled before physician testimony. Most subpoenas did not result in the pe diatrician going to court, and it is unclear which child factors may predic t court involvement. Pediatricians can take steps to minimize (but not elim inate) the potential dissatisfaction and inconvenience associated with rece iving and responding to subpoenas in child maltreatment cases.