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Opinion Testimony of Settling Party Barred?

The opinion testimony of the settling party is not barred when disclosed by non-settling party only 31 days before trial. In Scassifero v. Glaser, 333 Ill.App.3d 846, 776 N.E.2d 859, 267 Ill.Dec. 487 (2d Dist. 2002), a medical malpractice case, the Court held that the trial court acted within its discretion in allowing expert testimony disclosed only 31 days before trial. A doctor defendant supplemented his answers to expert interrogatories only 31 days before trial to add testimony of the defendant hospital's expert when the defendant hospital settled. In a matter of first impression, the Court held that the opinion testimony was properly allowed, despite being disclosed by defendant less than 60 days before trial, because the expert testimony was timely disclosed by another defendant, there was no prejudice to the plaintiff and the need to disclose the testimony did not arise until the hospital settled.

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