This article describes the situated nature of two intertwined dimensions of the context of medical encounters – expertise and compliance – within the interactional practices of referrals and accounts of referrals. Families who display their expertise and compliance have referral and account sequences with notably different features compared to sequences with families who display a lack of compliance and expertise. The display of expertise significantly affects the course of the interaction, and asymmetrical sequences often occur in interactions when the professionals see families' expertise and compliance as problematic.