Rules For Working With Economics Expert Witnesses – Part 3

In 14 Rules For Working With An Expert Economist, expert witness Dr. Jerome M. Staller offers “rules” to follow that will help your economics expert witness do the best job he or she can for you and your client.

Use your expert to assemble, review and analyze data. Your expert will help you martial your facts and use them to compose an effective narrative. Use your economist to help guide depositions and discovery — he knows best what you will need to build a credible narrative as far as economic issues.

Develop the theme of the damages case with the expert. A damages argument is the story of differences: what was the plaintiff’s economic status before the incident, and what was the plaintiff’s economic status after the incident? The jury can best understand these differences if they are presented as a narrative. Your economist can help you frame the theme of this narrative and can supply facts and theories enabling the jury to understand and accept the narrative..

Excerpted from The Center for Forensic Economic Studies http://www.cfes.com/