Are Good Expert Witnesses Born Or Trained? Part 2

In Five Imperatives for Expert Witnesses, SynchronicsGroup Trial Consultants, one of the oldest jury and trial consulting firms in the country, writes on “Are good experts born, or can they be trained?

The nonverbal language is powerful; more powerful than the verbal because it is the primal language of feelings. Most of the attributes of a good expert witness are nonverbal attributes, i.e., self-confidence, politeness, sincerity, preparedness, awareness, relaxed excellence. These are nonverbal attributes because they are based on other people’s perceptions of a person, rather than what the person says about himself. For instance, an expert can declare to the jury that he is credible, but that declaration does not make him credible. The jurors make an expert credible; their perceptions determine who is or is not credible.