The Connecticut Court of Appeals has upheld a trial court’s denial of the plaintiff’s motion in a medical malpractice case to admit certain excerpts from the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS)  guidelines, finding such material could confuse jurors as to the relevant standard of care.

The plaintiff, Christopher Williams, administrator of the estate of the decedent, John Williams, appealed the ruling of Superior Court Judge Cynthia K. Swienton for the New London District after a jury ruled in favor of the defendant, Peter Bertolozzi, an emergency medicine physician at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital. Williams argued the court lacked a legal basis to exclude the ATLS excerpts into evidence at trial, according to the court’s opinion published in the Connecticut Law Journal on Tuesday.