What exactly does adoptive admission mean in layman’s terms? Is this a positive indication for the plaintiff in medical mal litigation?

Basically when someone tries to get a statement that someone else made outside of court to prove something, that is hearsay and is not admissible to prove what was said One exception is if someone admits something; that can be introduced. An adoptive admission basically means that someone makes a statement about someone else and that someone else either by word or conduct (sometimes even silence) expressed or implied that the statement was true. the jury instruction in california is CACI 213. The jury can then weigh that statement against the person (the someone else). If the jury does not believe that the someone else expressed or implied the statement was true they are not to consider the statement at all.

Don't know your term. An admission is a legal term of testimony that can be admitted to show fault or responsibility.

An adoptive admission is when someone says something adverse to the other party and the other party does not respond. It could be used in a med-mal situation, as in any other. Looking at an MRI film, one doctor says; "Anybody looking at this film ought to have seen that abnormality" and the other doctor, standing next to him, had looked at that film and had not noticed the abnormality, says nothing. The second doctor has admitted that he should have seen it, by his silence having adopted the adverse statement of the first doctor.