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In Help! My New House Is Falling Down, architect Peter Lattey writes that uncovering construction defects requires an expert to discover the cause of damage.

A homeowner walks into your office and says “My new house is falling apart and I want to sue the bum that built it.”

As a smart lawyer, you quickly decide that this may be your next money making case and you decide to find out what the case is all about. Being a prudent person, you do a bit of research before you take on the case. Just as an emergency room doctor does a triage on new cases to decide how each new patient is to be treated, a smart lawyer needs to do the same on new construction defect cases.

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In Cross-Examination of Experts: Where to Start, Richard A. Cook, Esq., offers a list of areas to review including Learned Treatises, Private Investigators, and more. Mr. Cook, member of the Indianapolis law firm Yosha Cook Shartzer & Tisch, is a former Assistant U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana. He writes as a guest blogger for http://theparalegalsociety.wordpress.com.

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In The forensic expert witness-An issue of competency, Forensic Science International writes:

Scientists submitting expert opinions within the legal system are expected to be knowledgeable in the forensic aspects of their particular science, as well as to be ethical and unbiased.

Scientists are seldom able to decline a request to provide an expert opinion in their field, even when their forensic expertise is minimal. The competence of scientists providing expert opinions in forensic cases is reviewed here. Three examples of the perils of uninformed “expertise” in forensic biology, medicine and anthropology are presented.

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In Witness Competency, Bonnie Sudderth, Judge of the 352nd District Court of Tarrant County, TX, writes:

Long before Robinson and Daubert subjected expert witnesses to a judicial pre-screening process, Texas judges were acting as gate-keepers as to fact witnesses on the basis of competency. In fact, legal history in Texas is replete with many grounds to exclude witnesses due to incompetency, most of which have long-since been abandoned or repealed, such as religion, race and criminal convictions. Two exclusionary grounds remain, however, in the current rules of evidence – witnesses who are mentally incompetent and children.

Read more: http://judgebonniesudderth.wordpress.com

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Quebec Justice Brian Riordan agreed to hear the testimony of Stanford University’s Robert Proctor in the class action case against Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, and JTI-Macdonald. The tobacco expert witness published Tobacco and the Global Lung Cancer Epidemic in 2001 and has previously testified in 30 trials. Dr. Proctor testified for plaintiffs in the $27B case.

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An ABA Section of Litigation Task Force was appointed by Section of Litigation Chair Hilarie Bass to explore the creation of guidelines for retention of experts by lawyers on behalf of their clients. At the August ABA annual meeting the ABA House of Delegates voted down the resolution to adopt the guidelines which described a set of uniform best practices for lawyers to follow when hiring experts. The control and administration of the ABA is vested in the House of Delegates, the policy-making body of the association.

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In EVALUATING AN EXPERT WITNESS FOR SCHOOL SAFETY CASES, school safety expert witness Michael Dorn writes:

The Need to Evaluate an Expert Witness before Hiring

Whether an attorney advocates for the defense or the plaintiff, few things can be as damaging to a civil or criminal case as finding out during a deposition or trial that an expert witness has serious skeletons in their closet, such as:

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SEAK, Inc. is offering the program How to Excel at Your Expert Witness Deposition January 26-27, 2013. SEAK has trained well over 20,000 expert witnesses, physicians, lawyers and nurses nationwide, and is located on Cape Cod, MA.

How to Excel at Your Expert Witness Deposition is fast moving and content rich. The course is taught using five methodologies: lecture, interactive exercises, videos of experts testifying in real cases, mock deposition demonstrations, and questions and answers.

More info: seak.com.

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In How to Prepare for, Take and Use a Deposition, litigator Daniel P. Dain writes “The deposition of an expert witness is the culmination of the opposing party’s defense or prosecution.” Mr. Dain is a founder and the managing partner of Brennan, Dain, Le Ray, Wiest, Torpy & Garner in Boston, MA. His book includes over 50 forms in print & on CD, including custom-crafted motions & case-specific deposition checklists. Topics include:

Goals and Strategies Legal Research of Issues Written Discovery of Expert Witness Opinions Sample: Interrogatory to Identify Expert Witness and Opinions General Outline of Expert Deposition Qualifications of Expert Under FRE 702 Impeachment of Expert’s Qualifications The Expert’s Understanding of Case Related Facts Basis for Each Opinion of the Expert Scientific, Technical or Specialized Kowledge Under FRE 702 Authoritative Treatises Expert Opinions Scope of Examination of Expert Witness Putting It All Together Into a Deposition Outline

Excerpted from How to Prepare for, Take and Use a Deposition.