Prosecutors in the Phil Spector murder case filed a motion requesting the defense team be ordered to disclose the fees that Spector’s 13 expert witnesses are being paid before they take the stand in the music producer’s trial. In papers filed with the court, prosecutors claimed they had previously asked…
Expert witness marketing is a conservative investment. It is not an instant gratifier. As marketing expert Jay Levinson states, “Don’t expect marketing to suddenly double your sales. Although this has happened, it is unusual. Recognizing this, you’ll feel good about making a conservative investment in marketing the next year, and…
Many argue that the Daubert reliability test is important because expert witness testimony is uniquely vulnerable to bias. Those in this camp argue expert witnesses differ from lay witnesses, because experts are retained to advance the cause of one party in an adversarial proceeding. Courts have consistently reiterated than expert…
The Illinois House committee is considering Bill HB1896, which would require pretrial hearing on the merits of any expert witness in a civil trial. Though the bill would apply to all civil litigation, the debate in the Illinois House committee will focus on medical experts in malpractice trials. As stated…
When one looks at the characteristics of attorneys, it becomes obvious that they do not spend a great deal of time finding the “best” expert witness: 1. Attorneys are middle persons who are controlled by the client. They will advocate the expert witness to the client, who ultimately pays for…
Viewing jail visitor lists is a common practice among prosecuting attorneys. But what happens when defense counsel asks an expert witness to visit a prisoner? Should that information be privileged? Courts have disagreed. In California, one court denied the public defenders’ request to keep prosecutors from knowing which defense experts…
Philip Michels, a plaintiff’s lawyer at Michels & Watkins in Westwood, California, has written an excellent article entitled “Finding and effectively using experts in a professional medical negligence case.” The article appears in the April 2007 of the Advocate magazine, published by the Counsumer Attorneys Associations for Southern California. In…
U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed struck down a 1998 U.S. law that makes it a crime for operators of Internet sites to let anyone under 17 have access to sexual material, rebuffing the government’s argument that software filters are ineffective and upholding earlier rulings that the law infringed on free-speech…
West Virginia’s “Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse” plans to ask the legislature to create a “code of ethics” to prevent “misleading expert witness testimony.” As reported in the West Virginia Register-Herald, a survey about expert witnesses was conducted by the the Center for Survey Research at the University of Virginia: In…
Several medical expert witnesses and psychology experts are again expected to testify in the retrial of Daniel Ramsey of Keokuk, Iowa. His retrial began on Monday, April 2, 2007 in Lewistown, Iowa for the July 8, 1996, slayings of two girls. Ramsey was 18 when he was accused of the…