Get great economic damage testimony...pump up your expert economist's ego!: What to tell your economic expert before the deposition.

For most economists, no matter how many cases they have testified in, the experience of providing testimony at a deposition is very stressful. In fact many economic experts would say that providing testimony at a deposition is even more stressful than providing testimony at trial. At depositions, opposing counsel are far more likely to ask questions that are nothing more than harassment (at least as seen by the witness). Many of the lines of questions that attorneys pursue in a deposition would bore the average juror senseless.

The bottom line however is that when witnesses are under stress, they are far more likely to make a mistake or make inaccurate statements. What can you, as the attorney defending the deposition, say and do with your economist to help your testifying expert not be as stressed (and provide the best testimony for your client)?

1. Do not let them be bullied by the opposing counsel.
Some attorneys will try everything from talking over the experts testimony to more subtle approaches to intimidate the witness such as standing over the expert while they review documents.

*Tell your economic expert witness :
Stay your ground. Finish your answers fully. If the opposing attorney attempts to cut you off; do not let them. Do not let them do the subtle things; cut if off before they get started. If the witness is not comfortable, many people are not, with the attorney approaching them or with the questioning attorney standing while the witness is seated, tell your economist to let the attorney asking the questions know that. It is more than ok, to say ' NO, I do not feel comfortable with you looking over my shoulder.' At any point if they feel uncomfortable, have them take a break. Sometimes this can be a great way to break the attorney's 'mo'! (Think about the effect of a well placed time out in sports.)

2. Do not let the opposing counsel tell the economic expert witness what their testimony is.
Attorneys will many times try to re-phrase the economic experts testimony in the way they want it to be stated. Almost always, the re-phrasing is inaccurate or a trick.

*Tell your economic expert witness:
Be on guard for any and all questions that involve the attorney rephrasing what you did in YOUR analysis. It is usually best to just re-phrase the attorneys questions no matter what. Remember, the attorney already knows the answer to the question in many depositions; they just want the economist to agree to some statement that helps their position.

3. Do not let the opposing counsel shake your confidence in your economic model.
Many attorneys will try to shake the economic expert's confidence by asking detailed questions on some particular area. For example, the attorney may go into great detail about the interest rate that was used in your economic expert's model and ask about alternative models that could have been used.

*Tell your economic expert witness:
The key thing to remember here is that no matter what the opposing attorney says or does, 99.9% of the time there is no one in the room who knows more about the economic damage model than the expert witness. This is especially important to new economic experts (it never hurts to tell the old salts this too). Assuming that the analysis is tight and correct, the economist should stick to their position. In most situations, the differences in the models are nothing more than differences in the assumptions and methodology. Tell them that, at least in your experience, that it is usually not grounds to kick a report simply because the opposing counsel does not like it!

4. Do not overreach ; even on items that you 'should' know.
Many attorneys will set up a hypothetical situation and then try to use the expert's testimony to show some 'flaw' in the economic expert's analysis. Depending on the skill of the attorney, the set up of the hypothetical situations can be very involved. Other times the attorney will ask the expert witness about something that they know that the expert has no knowledge of.

Tell you economic expert witness:
One thing: DO NOT BE AFRAID TO SAY ' I DO NOT KNOW'. They is nothing wrong with not knowing the answer. Even if it is an answer that the expert should know (at least in the eyes of the attorney asking the question). More times than not reaching and guessing on things that the expert does not know will make the situation worst. Also do NOT offer to get the attorney more information on some topic; if you do not know; then you do not know. Do not fall into the opposing counsel's hypothetical traps.