Articles Posted in Expert Witness Marketing

In How to Write a Medical Malpractice Expert Witness Report, attorney Vivian Pearson explains:

Your medical malpractice expert witness report should be targeted to your attorney’s specifications. Before you begin to prepare your report, know what he or she is expecting in terms or length, formatting, font, and amount of details to include. To ensure that you meet your attorney’s guidelines and ensure you are paid on time, give your attorney a draft of the report to review before you put it in final form.

1. Ask the attorney you are working for to help you define the scope of your report. Most jurisdictions have written rules that define what you may include in your medical malpractice expert witness report. Before you begin to work on the report, get a written set of guidelines.

In Your Competitive Advantage, expert witness marketing consultant Rosalie Hamilton writes:

After objectively assessing your own strengths and weaknesses, determine your competitive advantage. Is your education or professional experience superior? If you are not a novice, have you handled a greater number of cases, or bigger or more successful cases, or have you worked with prestigious law firms? Do you present yourself more professionally or appear more credible? Are there exclusive dimensions to your expertise? What comprises your personal uniqueness and, therefore, your competitive edge?

A competitive advantage can be merely a perceived advantage. You can use this to your benefit. A large engineering firm may have many different specialties of engineers, along with its own testing facilities. Alternately, a sole practitioner engineer can promote himself as being more responsive to the attorney, more personally involved in each case, and possibly less costly. Learn to articulate your competitive advantage in a professional manner.

In Your Competitive Advantage, expert witness marketing consultant Rosalie Hamilton writes:

Who is your competition, and how do you compare? Considering that most cases requiring an expert witness involve at least two experts and our society shows no signs of becoming less litigious, competition should not be your primary concern in building an expert practice. You will learn valuable lessons, however, from analyzing the practices of two or three experts in your field. Study their professional qualifications, appearance, communication skills, and reputation among their peers, and note how they market themselves and the fees they charge.

Excerpted from The Expert Witness Marketing Book by Rosalie Hamilton

Market analysis expert Rosalie Hamilton offers tips on expert witness marketing at http://expertcommunications.blogspot.com/.

I frequently read advice and reactions from attorneys and judges regarding expert witnesses. It is rare, however, to hear it from a juror’s perspective. Here are one juror’s comments after a recent seven day trial:

Expert Witness for Plaintiff [EWP] was not board certified and claimed the reason he wasn’t was that it was too expensive.

Marketing effectiveness expert Rosalie Hamilton offers tips on expert witness marketing at http://expertcommunications.blogspot.com/.

Commentary for expert consultants to the legal industry and the methods to find prospect attorneys, companies and insurers that need their expert consultant services. Current trends in billing habits, legislation, advertising and business development for doctors, engineers, CPAs, criminalists, professors, scientists, investigators, legal nurse consultants, etc. Discussion of the ins and outs of professionals working within the weird world of attorneys, courts and litigation.

In

Manners Matter for Expert Witnesses,

marketing expert Rosalie Hamilton writes :

As an expert witness, your demeanor can be critical to how triers of fact view you, your report, and your testimony. Respect, politeness and composure can make a big difference in how the jury sees you. In “Effective Expert Preparation and Presentation,” in The Advocate Magazine, May 2010, the Honorable Peter J. Polos (Ret.) writes that in addition to “Yes, sir/ma’am” and “Your Honor” that:

Experts should not let their tempers show no matter how bad the behavior of the questioning attorney. If the expert maintains his or her composure and the cross-examining attorney does not, it can only negatively impact the other side. Some of the the worst expert testimony I saw was due to argumentative or defensive testimony by the expert on cross-examination.

In Hostile Opposing Counsel Expert Communications.com writes:

This all brings to mind a deposition I had in which the opposing counsel made a very big deal of the fact I had not brought exactly some financial data on my expert practice he had requested (I had brought something equivalent and in fact more responsive to his concerns). He then proceeded to politely but persistently ask me the same question over and over, in different ways but always the same question. My answer was critical to his case, and I answered politely but firmly each time. He never got what he wanted, and politely made sure I knew he was not happy about this. I thought he was a bit of a jerk.

Several months later he called me and asked me to work with him on a case. He introduced me to his partners as an expert who “is really good”. It was only then that I realized he had been “trying me on for size” in that first deposition. Since that time he and his partners have become regular clients. I have come to understand he is in fact a pretty nice guy, and a well respected attorney. Learning how lawyers play the game is one of the many things I enjoy about my expert practice.

In Hostile Opposing Counsel Expert Communications.com writes:

If the attorney spends most of the deposition attacking how much money you make as an expert witness or how you testify more for one side or the other, or is extremely obnoxious and aggressive, just remain cool and calm. You have already won the case and that attorney knows it all too well. His only hope is to get you crack and say or do something stupid. Like you said, these tactics are primarily in depositions where they can’t be “seen”. These kinds of tactics are rarely used in front of a jury because the jury would see them for what they are. In addition, while you can’t always depend on it, judges may limit some of these theatrics as your client attorney may object to the witness being abused.

In Hostile Opposing Counsel Expert Communications.com writes:

I have been doing expert witness work for 25 years. Attorneys basically have two tactics. They can either attack your opinions or attack you personally. If the whole deposition is about attacking you personally, you know you have won! If you the attorney could attack your objective opinions, he would certainly do so. If he refrains from attacking your objective opinions, he knows you are completely accurate. Therefore, since he can’t directly dispute your opinions, he can only attempt to discredit you and therefore, by implication, your opinions.

In Be a Better Expert Witness, marketing expert Rosalie Hamilton asks “What proactive steps will you take to be a better and more in-demand expert consultant?

Developing your practice and becoming a more effective expert consultant requires that you perform an honest assessment of yourself and your practice. Based on what you determine to be areas that need improvement, steps to take could include: honing your skills at case review, opinion report writing, testifying in deposition and court, and marketing your practice.

If you are new to providing services to attorneys and have not read The Expert Witness Handbook by Dan Poynter, an expert witness, this book would be a good choice. It presents an overview, along with practical, time-tested advice and examples.