Today, the Tennessee Supreme Court, in Alsip v. Johnson City Medical Center, ruled that ex parte communications between defense counsel and a plaintiff's non-party physician are not allowed.
The link to the opinion is as follows:
http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/CURRENT/AlsipJenniferOPN.pdf
/AlsipJenniferOPN.pdf CURRENT/AlsipJenniferOPN.pdf
The Court held that these sort of communications violate the implied covenant of confidentiality between physicians and patients. (This only makes sense because a person's medical information is very intimate.)
Moreover, the Court reasoned, this information can be obtained through formal discovery -- if it is relevant.
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