On May 22, 2007, at 2:00 p.m. EDT, LexisNexis/Mealey’s will have an Expert Witness teleconference entitled “Finding the Right Expert.” The one hour presentation will include the following topics:
What to know before you begin searching for an expert
– The importance of knowing the subject matter
A new magazine called “Plaintiff magazine” will debut this summer. Published by the same company that issues “The Advocate” magazine, the target market will be plaintiff attorneys in Northern California.
The magazine has announced that its March 2008 issue will focus on expert witnesses.
As stated by the publishers of Plaintiff:
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 in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Doctors blame lawyers for filing what they see as frivolous lawsuits. Lawyers fault insurers, saying the companies raise rates and then blame the civil justice system.
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 its study, the center learned most doctors in West Virginia doubt the “expert” testimony if it is given beyond a physician’s specialty or is motivated by money. Sixty-four percent of doctors surveyed rated the overall quality of medical expert witnesses as “poor” or “only fair.” Only 27 percent felt it was “good.” And a mere 9 percent considered it “very good” or “excellent.” The survey found 72 percent had seen or heard testimony by a medical expert they felt was either in error or based on questionable science. All but 5 percent agreed that testimony as supportive diagnoses provided for a fee was tainted. A code of ethics was supported by 96 percent of the physicians interviewed in the University of Virginia research.
It should be noted that most in the survey would likely be facing a medical malpractice expert witness as opposed to working as an expert witness themselves. Also, most of the concerns of the doctors surveyed are addressed by the Daubert reliability test.
American Lawyer Media (ALM), which runs the ALM Expert Witness Directory, is reportedly for sale. According to the Business Wire:
Wasserstein & Co., LP [ALM’s owner] announced that it has retained Credit Suisse as its exclusive financial advisor to assist it in exploring various strategic alternatives for its investment in ALM, including the possible sale of the company.
It will be interesting to see the price that is paid for ALM if it sold since its primary asset is its magazines and newspapers. Best known for its legal publications, ALM currently owns 34 national magazines, including “The Legal Expert Pages” print directory. ALM also runs an expert witness directory on Law.com. It is unknown what will happen to its online expert witness directory if ALM is sold. The online directory had changed names from “NLJ Experts” to “ALM Experts” in 2005.
The Baltimore Sun reports that police procedures expert Jospeph Kopera killed himself after being confronted with evidence that he had lied about his credentials. This revelation could force new trials for some of the hundreds of people he helped convict.
As reported in the Baltimore Sun:
Joseph Kopera, head of the Maryland State Police firearms unit, claimed on witness stands to have degrees that he never earned, state police acknowledged yesterday as they began notifying prosecutors and defense attorneys across the region of their findings.
Expert Witness Blog