Expert Witness Blog
In Optimizing Your Use of Banking and Financial Institution Experts, banking expert witness Michael F. Richards writes:
Three Critical Expert Questions After the expert has had a chance to review the documents and reconstruct what happened there are three distinct questions the retained attorney should ask their expert.
1) The most obvious is, what did you find that was done wrong?
2) What wasn’t found in the documents that should have been there?
3) What gives you concern (heart-burn) about the case after reviewing the documents?
Question number 2 is important because with the entire bank regulatory requirements, if the bank didn’t perform certain tasks as required by regulation, these items will not show up in discovery. Question number 3 is important because it gives you a heads up as to potential problem areas with the case. It shouldn’t matter who the expert represents, their opinions are determined by the facts of the case. If the expert discovers items that are detrimental to the client they represent, it is better to be aware of those in advance, and not be embarrassed or surprised at trial. If opposing council has done a good job in hiring their expert, assume the detrimental and questionable information will be discovered.