Expert Opinion
Areas of expertise
Associate Professor Tucker reviews legal briefs for defence and plaintiff legal teams regarding the following areas of practice:
Obstetrics across a range of facility levels, from level 2 (only delivering babies 37 weeks’ gestation or higher, low-risk obstetrics) to level 6 (all babies below 29 weeks’ gestation, including high-risk obstetrics and extremely premature babies).
Stillbirth, preterm labour, medical complications of pregnancy and birth resulting in cerebral palsy.
Outpatient antenatal care, including GP-shared care, interfacing with hospital midwives, midwifery group practices, private practice midwives and doulas.
Management of routine and complex labour and delivery conducted in the birth suite and operating theatre setting, including instrumental delivery and complex caesarean section, including caesarean hysterectomy.
Provision of advice from a high-level obstetric facility to low-level hospitals. Planning and coordinating patient retrievals over large physical distances.
Outpatient and procedural gynaecology.
Surgical gynaecology, including day surgery and inpatient settings. Open surgery and laparoscopic operations for intermediate-level endometriosis and hysterectomy. Miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and surgical complication management.
Leadership, decision-making and clinical governance.
Appropriate supervision of trainees, including Registrars and Resident Medical Officers.
AMA4 Qualified for impairment assessment. Videoconference or in-person.
Areas not in scope
Expert advice not within scope includes:
Urogynaecology.
Advanced laparoscopic surgery, e.g. deep, infiltrating endometriosis (AGES level 5/6)
Gynecological oncology.
Maternal-Fetal Medicine subspecialty practice.
IVF and reproductive medicine.
If you’re unsure, please reach out by email with a brief, records review and operation report or relevant correspondence.
Booking process
Please reach out via email to admin@dannytucker.net preferably including a brief.
Associate Professor Tucker or his Administrative Assistant, Kyla, will reply to confirm:
The area of practice is within his remit of expertise.
Absence of conflicts of interest
A booking link will be emailed on confirmation of the above, enabling legal teams to book a mutually convenient appointment time.
Accept the calendar invite that is then created to confirm the appointment. Calendar invites can be shared within your organisation.
Meetings take place via video conference using Microsoft Teams.
Consultancy fees
A typical review of clinical records up to ~500 pages entails 2 hours of pre-reading, formulation, and 45 minutes of video conference. The fee for this is 2.75 x $750 p/h = $2062.50+GST, which is a minimum fee. A longer, more complex review might involve 3.5 hours of pre-reading, usually offset by report-writing time.
If a team wishes to proceed, report turnaround is 5-6 weeks. Report fees depend upon the complexity of the case and the number of questions in the letter of instruction. Quotation for the report can be provided after file review, but generally, 6-8 hours is typical for medium complexity (same hourly rate as above).
If a team decides not to proceed with a report, a client-friendly summary of the opinion and Q&A for use without specific attribution is offered. This is provided without additional fee as a service to clients who have invested deeply, emotionally, and often financially in a case.
Please note opinions are not given based on a legal team’s medical records review, solitary expert opinions, or CTGs without case notes. This inevitably leads to uncertainty, excessive qualifications, or hedging. In complete case reviews, relevant information not previously identified is often discovered.
For pregnancy reviews, it is optimal to receive antenatal records from all involved care providers, formal ultrasound reports (not images), intrapartum and postnatal records, including CTGs, blood investigations, surgical records, and, where possible, prior pregnancy notes. Baby resuscitation records enable me to evaluate the neonatal condition at birth, evidence of later deterioration, and imaging to inform an opinion on causation.
Short Meetings
These are in pilot.
15-minute videoconference meetings on a Thursday afternoon.
Opportunity to discuss issues early for general obstetric/gynaecology advice.
Material can be emailed beforehand for screen share during discussions, but no pre-reading will be undertaken.
No fee: offered as a service to legal teams.
Bookable from 3 weeks in advance.
Limited to 2 bookings per legal office per month.
Booking link: