I love London, and there are a couple of really good conferences our UK members (and any experts traveling abroad) might want to consider attending.

This year's Annual Bond Solon Expert Witness Conference is Friday the 12th of November, 2010 at the Church House Conference Centre in London. This is I believe the largest gathering of expert witnesses in the UK, and offers some terrific opportunities to develop your skills, grow your network, and build your business. Bond Salon offers training for expert witnesses with non-legal backgrounds. With a stellar reputation, this should be an exceptionally good conference. You can sign up now, and get a special 'early bird' price. 

You can develop your expert witness business by attending the "Marketing and Managing your Expert Witness Business" seminar on February 24th, 2010, presented by the Expert Witness Institute, a non-profit advocacy and training organization based in London aimed at working with expert witnesses.

The Society for Expert Witnesses is holding their annual conference on May 14-15th in Northampton. This non-profit organization is run 'by experts for exerts', and, among other benefits, offers a new expert mentoring program.

Maybe I will see you there?
 

Depends who you ask. But 71% of corporate counsels, and 61% of private practice lawyers agree that pricing and fees is the #1 issue facing the legal industry, according to the recent Lex/Nex survey. Undoubtedly fodder for a blogosphere feeding frenzy, this commissioned survey also shows that most (77%) private practice lawyers believe their clients are too focused on cost.

The impact of these, and other noted trends, has a serious impact on the expert witness industry.

This question is usually asked with some apprehension from new expert witnesses. The key is clearly preparation and caution. Early work and preparation with your client is critical. Aaron Larson, a lawyer based out of Michigan, wrote a very useful series of tips for the new expert witness.Part of it includes:

If you are inexperienced  as an expert witness, you should know the following for deposition:

Know the legal issues. Speak with your client about the legal issues, and get comfortable with the legal terminology for your case.

Only one person may speak at a time. Everything you say at a deposition is being transcribed. The court reporter cannot make a good record when people interrupt each other or talk at the same time.

Only answer the question that was asked. Ordinarily, after you have answered the specific question that you were asked, you will not want to volunteer any additional information. Even if opposing counsel sits silently and seems to expect you to say more, don't fall into that trap. If opposing counsel wants more information, he will ask a follow-up question. Get used to silence even if it makes you uncomfortable -- it is your job to answer questions, not to fill silence.

Think before you answer questions. Whether on direct examination or cross-examination, think before you speak. It is almost always better for there to be a short pause before you answer a question than for you to give a bad answer.



His whole posting with many more great suggesitons can be found here 

Many of our experts we place with clients are new to the experience, and have never testified or given a deposition before. Given that many a deposition will be in a hostile, or at least oppositional manner, preparation is critical.

One of the most common questions I get is: "What should I expect?"

Well, every deposition will be different, but as a starting place to prepare, here are five good questions you ought to be able to answer, as posted in the Trial Lawyers Resource Center web page.

Who engaged you on this case?
What did the ask you to do?
What did you actually do?
What conclusion and opinions did you reach, and what do you intend to testify to at trial?
Were there any other test - analysis or things you could have done that you would have liked to? What were they?

Clearly, there will be case-specific issues as well, but these are a good indication of what an opposing attorney might ask you.  

Another good suggestion they have is to draft the 10 most critical questions that the opposition may ask.  Ask yourself how to answer these questions, or better yet, have your client or a colleague ask them, perhaps even in a confrontational way.

While I am a big fan of market forces determining an expert's billing rates, there has been an interesting ruling recently that has led me to re-think this philosophy, at least in specific situations. In this matter, one party (plaintiff) hired a neurosurgeon expert at a staggering 5000.00 for the first hour, 2,000 an hour thereafter, which of course is their right. If they want to pay an expert that amount, well, good for them. But when the opposing party (defendant) has to pay for the expert's time in a deposition, they got stuck with that rate as well. Is this fair?

In her Dec. 30 ruling, (Crawford v. American Legion Ambulance Association) a New Jersey federal magistrate judge thinks its not, calling $7,000 for two hours work "near to being extortionate".

Check out the whole story here.

Not all of our experts we place with clients are bound for the Supreme Court. They are not destined to appear on Fox News. They are not thrust into the high profile cases for fame and glory. They, like the vast majority of our country's justice system, are found in the small towns and cities of our nation, away from the glare of TV cameras and reporters. Our experts bring their insight, wisdom, and experience to where ever it is needed most. Justice has no ambition, other than to be comprehensibly available, and universally applied. That's why I love this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world ... Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

"What litigation trends should I expect from 2010?" one of my favorite-to-work-with experts asked me a couple of week back. Its was a question I had been hearing a lot lately, and I had been asking it almost as often. Here is what I see as some of the trends in the expert witness industry.

For 2010, I see three major trends in the expert witness industry: Earlier identification and retaining of experts,  increased sensitivity to cost by clients, and an increased amount of litigation in environmental damages, financial misconduct, and in the area of labor and employment. What does this mean for expert witnesses?

First, there will be a greater amount of time between the search/identification/interviewing/retaining of experts by clients on the one hand, and the actual start date of experts, on the other. Experts will need to be able to work within a longer time frame, requiring careful expert-client coordination on invoicing.

Second, and we saw this more and more last year, Clients will be much more cost-sensitive, requesting budgets from experts, relying more on video conferencing and other cost saving measures, and taking a harder line on negotiating rates. Experts who include this cost sensitivity in to their marketing and presentations will have an advantage over their competitors.

Finally, based on industry reports and expert observations, we expect to see an increased demand for expert witnesses in many areas of litigation, perhaps particularly in environmental damages matters, in employment and labor disputes, as well as in continued (and increasingly broad) litigation from the fall-out of the financial collapse of 2008-09.

Table Group Group membership can help you take full advantage of the latest industry trends, with profile reviews, links to conferences, and marketing ideas. Just reach out to our skilled expert services coordinators, who are standing by to assist. 


  

One of my all time favorite quotes about justice, especially since coming here to Round Table Group, where we get to work with passionate, dedicated experts and clients every day. It takes hard work to see justice.


"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
Martin Luther King, Jr


Safe Holidays to All!

Working from home is a growing trend, according to Caroline Tice, in her blog posting about "small business owners running viable businesses from their homes." or Homepreneurs. Anecdotal evidence has lead me to believe most expert witnesses also work from home-based office. If you are one of the over 13 million homepreneurs in America, you probably already know what I will be be suggesting, but for everyone else, especially new experts, just starting up in the field, here are some things every expert witness needs for working at home. Undoubtedly, this list will grow.

Get up to speed on  web conferencing and internet presentation skills, such as Webex. I tried the trial version of Webex and was pleasantly surprised on how easy it was to install, understand, and use! Its an easy way to show your clients that it does not matter where you work from. Get up to speed on video conferencing, and offer your clients the opportunity to see you, even if they don't have the ability to reciprocate. Most new laptops and monitors have small cameras built into them already, but you might also want to consider investing 30-80 bucks or so into a good web cam, which can mount on your monitor or rest on a desk or shelf. Tip: place it so that the background behind you reflects the type of image you want to present.
 
Make sure you have regularly scheduled professional face time with colleagues, at conferences, association meetings, continuing education, etc. One of the hazards of working from home, as opposed to a large office or university department, is isolation from your colleagues, and from potential clients! Professional conferences are an excellent way to keep up with the newest developments and ideas and people in your field.

My own personal necessity is a good a lock on the refrigerator, buts that's another story.

I's like to hear from other homepreneurs on what they think of this post!

Twice in my years here at Round Table Group an expert has withdrawn from a case. This most recent time was back in 2008. When we finally got the wayward expert witness on the phone, he refused to say why he withdrew, only that it wasn't worth his while. Speculation around the virtual water cooler was that nefarious corporate pressure had forced the expert's withdrawal.But all speculation aside, there are some fairly serious consequences to abandoning a client mid-case as Edward Hoffman writes in his posting.

True Story: There was a second example, but it turns out the expert had actually died mid-case. Fortunately for the left-in-the-lurch client, she was using a professional expert witness referral firm that was able to draw on the vast network of Round Table Group expert witnesses and professional staff to find a replacement in a timely manner.