Articles Posted in Trial Strategy

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.

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.

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.

In Deposing an Expert Witness, litigator Daniel P. Dain writes:

Goals and Strategies

The deposition of an expert witness is the culmination of the opposing party’s defense or prosecution theory of the case. Before taking an expert’s deposition, the parties should have completed fact discovery-interrogatories answered, documents obtained, lay witnesses deposed. Presumably, your opponent’s expert witness has been advising the opposing attorney about documents to be requested in the course of written discovery and about oral discovery questions that should be asked of the lay witnesses, so that the fact evidence necessary to the expert’s opinions has been established. The expert’s opinions are being offered by the opposing party as part of a plan to defeat your case. Deposing your opponent’s expert ­witness is your opportunity to understand, limit and hopefully stop defeat. The importance of being prepared to depose this expert ­witness cannot be overemphasized.

In The deposition and cross-exam of defense experts, A narrative guide to asking the right questions at deposition and trial, trial attorney Arash Homampour discusses:

Expert deposition notice and trial subpoena Videotaping Researching the expert
Read more: http://www.theadvocatemagazine.com/Homampour-article.pdf

In The Seven Rules for Hiring a Wireless Technology Expert, wireless technology expert witness Jonathan Wells PhD, MBA,

President, AJIS Wireless Consulting, writes:

Nowadays, wireless technology is ubiquitous. We all carry cell phones, navigate via GPS, check our emails when sitting in coffee shops and hotel rooms, and connect to the internet wirelessly from our homes and offices. Wireless technology is readily available, always on, and everywhere.

In Report Writing and Opinion Terminology, document examination expert witness Ronald N. Morris writes:

REPORT FORMAT The FDE uses a report format he is comfortable with, or one established by the laboratory in which he works. No one format is the only correct and accepted one to use. However, whatever format is used it should incorporate the following basic elements:

A. Questioned: A clearly written, and complete description of all the questioned documents submitted for examination.

In Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Hospitality Industry hospitality expert witness Maurice Robinson writes on arbitration:

Arbitration is a well-established form of dispute resolution that provides the parties with a final and legally binding decision. The decision is enforceable by a court of law typically after only a very limited review and may not be appealed except under very limited circumstances. Occasionally, the parties may agree to a non-binding arbitration, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

For years arbitration was viewed as an effective alternative to litigation and trial through the court system only in certain types of disputes, such as construction and design, labor and employment, disagreements over the purchase and sale of residential real property, consumer stock brokerage, and medical care. Early on, arbitration was pushed primarily by certain industries, such as stock brokers, architects, construction professionals, labor unions and hospitals, who perceived arbitration as an effective alternative to trial for a variety of reasons: they had a large number of lawsuits largely involving repetitive, cookie-cutter issues; they wanted to achieve some uniformity of result; they wanted confidentiality to the extent possible; and they wanted their disputes to be “tried” by an arbitrator with industry savvy, if not industry expertise.

In Addressing the Challenges of Cross-Border Data Protection and eDiscovery The Organization of Legal Professionals writes:

One of the more troubling eDiscovery issues that globalization has inadvertently imposed on organizations is compliance with a complex set of international data protection and privacy laws. These laws present a significant challenge to U.S. companies, which enjoy fewer domestic restraints on collecting and storing personal data of its employees and consumers. Read more: e-discovery 2.0.

The Organization of Legal Professionals is a professional association dedicated to setting standards and certifications through collaboration, education and certifications.

In More effective use of experts in slip-and-fall cases – The right expert will help you to better prepare the case and win it at trial, attorney David Reinard writes on when to retain your experts:

The answer here is easy: Before it’s too late and no sooner than you have to. In other words, there is no “one-size-fitsall”

answer. Experts are critical to success in these cases. As noted above, they can help you in every aspect of your case, from pre-litigation investigation to your cross of the defense experts at trial. On the other hand, unless you have an unlimited budget, you need to be careful to hire experts at the right time.