Preparing the economic expert witness for a deposition
Three things you can do to better prepare and economic expert witness for a deposition
1. Tell the economic expert how their testimony fits into your case.
It is very help for your economic expert, even in a ‘simple economic loss’ calculation case, to understand how their testimony fits into the bigger picture of your case. For instance, are there any discovery fights that are relevant to the expert’s testimony? If there are, the more information the expert has about them the better they can prepare for the cross examination questions concerning the issues.
2. Tell your economic expert the rules of the game.
Even if your expert has given a number of depositions, it is worth the time it takes to go over the rules of the deposition. For example, you may want to remind the expert about what and what not to bring to the deposition. It is also useful to lay out your expectations from the deposition beforehand. For instance, is your damages case hanging on his or her testimony?
3. Empower your economic expert.
While it is the duty of any expert witness to give truthful and honest answers, there is no guarantee that the answers that your expert provides will be understandable to you, or most importantly the jury. It is critically important for you to revisit the fundamentals of providing good deposition testimony with your expert each and every time.
For example it is always useful to tell the economic expert, even the old salts, that it is ok to say ‘you do not know’ when you do not know the answer to a question. Also, if the opposing attorney is a bully in the deposition room, it could be useful to go over and play act out some likely scenarios. For instance, let’s go over a scenario where the opposing attorney is trying to get your answer a question ‘yes or no’ that can not be answered ‘yes or no’. Or let’s think about how to handle the situation where the opposing attorney is trying to get you to testify about a document you do not know much about.
The more case specific scenarios you can rehearse prior to the deposition the better.
1. Tell the economic expert how their testimony fits into your case.
It is very help for your economic expert, even in a ‘simple economic loss’ calculation case, to understand how their testimony fits into the bigger picture of your case. For instance, are there any discovery fights that are relevant to the expert’s testimony? If there are, the more information the expert has about them the better they can prepare for the cross examination questions concerning the issues.
2. Tell your economic expert the rules of the game.
Even if your expert has given a number of depositions, it is worth the time it takes to go over the rules of the deposition. For example, you may want to remind the expert about what and what not to bring to the deposition. It is also useful to lay out your expectations from the deposition beforehand. For instance, is your damages case hanging on his or her testimony?
3. Empower your economic expert.
While it is the duty of any expert witness to give truthful and honest answers, there is no guarantee that the answers that your expert provides will be understandable to you, or most importantly the jury. It is critically important for you to revisit the fundamentals of providing good deposition testimony with your expert each and every time.
For example it is always useful to tell the economic expert, even the old salts, that it is ok to say ‘you do not know’ when you do not know the answer to a question. Also, if the opposing attorney is a bully in the deposition room, it could be useful to go over and play act out some likely scenarios. For instance, let’s go over a scenario where the opposing attorney is trying to get your answer a question ‘yes or no’ that can not be answered ‘yes or no’. Or let’s think about how to handle the situation where the opposing attorney is trying to get you to testify about a document you do not know much about.
The more case specific scenarios you can rehearse prior to the deposition the better.
posted by The Experts @ 12:42 PM
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