Posted by Nick Zafran on June 23, 2009 5:35 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

Medical expert witnesses who display display a humble and friendly personality may be better able to persuade a jury. A recent insurance article highlighting comments by a doctor and senior consultant for a large physician-owned malpractice insurers indicates that "juries are at least as heavily influenced by their feelings about the players as they are by the facts of the case." Many times doctors with top credentials may perceived as arrogant or distant. While the article highlights doctors defending medical malpractice actions, this would similarly apply to medical expert witnesses.

Posted by Nick Zafran on June 8, 2009 5:37 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

Psychiatric expert witnesses can be vetted and evaluated in the same manner as any expert witness. An attorney can check work references, perform a Lexis search and speak to other attorneys who have previously engaged the expert in question. Going a bit further, an attorney can also use Daubert Tracker, which is a site purposely designed to track cases that involve the admissibility of expert testimony. Attorneys can enter an expert's name and search all cases, if any, where that expert's ability to testify was challenged before a court and whether that challenge was successful.

Additionally, when evaluating a psychiatric expert witness, or any medical expert, an attorney might want to turn to HealthGrades. HealthGrades is a physician evaluation website that provides a great deal of information on a doctor, including board certifications, disciplinary actions, patient evaluations and education and training. Its use is a great way to confirm a medical expert's credentials.

Finally, anyone practicing in medical litigation of any specialty should check out the book, How Attorneys Can Best Utilize Their Medical Expert Witness: A Medical Expert's Perspective. Unlike most resources however, this one is written by a top medical expert and doctor, not an attorney. The author, Dr Vernon Neppe MD, PhD is a leading neuropsychiatrist/behavioral neurologist, and psychopharmacologist. He also has extensive experience as a forensic psychiatrist/forensic neuropsychiatrist. 

Many expert witness referral firms now use these tools and many others before presenting an expert, but you may also want to use the most relevant tools yourself to minimize unpleasant last-minute surprises.

Nick

Posted by Nick Zafran on May 26, 2009 7:24 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

Litigation in connection with pharmaceutical marketing has been a hot area for some time, and all signs point toward a continuation of this trend, with a corresponding escalation in billing rates for top talent. Pharmaceutical marketing expert witnesses often help litigators determine how certain pharmaceutical markets respond to the new entry of products, generic products, and price fluctuations. They also design, conduct and analyze surveys to support claims of false advertising, unfair competition, and intellectual property violations, among others. Expert witnesses in this discipline tend to be MBAs, JDs, MDs, and have many years of experience in hands-on sales and marketing within the pharmaceutical industry.

Most pharmaceutical marketing cases are quite large, often with huge stakes not just for clients involved but also for the industry as a whole. As such, pharmaceutical marketing expert witnesses command fairly high billing rates.  A sample survey reveals that the hourly non-testifying rates of pharmaceutical marketing expert witnesses range from a low of $200.00 an hour, to a high of $650.00 an hour, with an average rate of about $400.00 an hour. The average testifying rate was $95.00 higher. Expert witness referral firms are constantly recruiting in this area and are well prepared for an up tick in litigation. 

Posted by Nick Zafran on May 18, 2009 2:49 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

A U.S. District Court judge has prevented a medical expert witness from testifying on behalf of plaintiffs in cases involving Eli Lily's Zyprexa drug. The expert had previously testified in approximately 20 individual Zyprexa cases. The judge concluded that the expert was "shockingly careless about the facts in the cases he proposes to opine about." "He repeatedly and impermissibly stretched the truth to support findings of causality."

While it is useful for litigators to work with an expert witness who has extensive testifying experience on the issue at hand, it can also lead to problems. Seven of the 20 cases mentioned above where the doctor testified are now pending summary judgment by that same judge. Finding an equally knowledgeable and qualified medical expert witness with less exposure is a strategy worth exploring.

Posted by Nick Zafran on May 11, 2009 3:12 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

Several bills in the State Senate and House Judiciary committees would serve to tighten expert witness standards in Illinois. The first bill would align the state's expert witness standards more closely with those used in federal court. Another bill would limit the venue for a tort action to a county where the defendant has an office or headquarters.

Posted by Nick Zafran on May 8, 2009 7:47 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

Patent expert witnesses are in high demand. Continued advances in technology and the highly competitive nature of the business world ensure that patent litigation will continue to grow for many years to come. Traditionally, finding a qualified expert with specialized knowledge in the scientific field subject to your litigation has been difficult. Accordingly, many expert witness referral firms place an increased emphasis on providing a large panel of patent experts in all relevant fields to assist attorneys in their time of need.

Such assistance, however, does not preclude you from looking for an expert yourself. Let's say you have a potential need for a semiconductor expert. Where should you go first? One of the Internet's free expert databases or a simple Google search? No way. Shame on you for even thinking that. Head to Amazon.com. When evaluating the qualifications of an expert, courts tend to give greater deference those who have published extensively in the field related to the patent in issue. Amazon sells a bevy of technical books on almost any scientific field you might need. A simple search for "semiconductors" turns up literally thousands of books. It is then a small matter of contacting a book's author, who is usually easily located in his or her respective university directory.

Give Amazon.com a try next time you are thinking of using an expert. And while you are there, buy a DVD, or a vacuum cleaner, or a hairbrush for your dog. Or some other item you do not really need. Your patent expert searches can help turn the economy around!

Nick

Posted by Nick Zafran on April 24, 2009 4:13 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

In an edition of the The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Steve Schott, Director of Business Development at Round Table Group, provides a thorough explanation detailing how expert witness referral firms conduct "customized expert witness searches" for their clients. These searches go beyond a mere proprietary database search and are specifically tailored to the facts of each case. Further, such searches tend to yield experts who are "true experts," leaders in their respective fields whose distinction goes far beyond just being an expert witness.

Posted by Nick Zafran on April 13, 2009 2:41 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

The Arizona Supreme Court upheld a 2005 state law requiring that any expert witness seeking to testify against a doctor in a medical malpractice case be licensed as a health care provider and be a specialist in the same area as the defendant. The expert must also be actively practicing or teaching in that particular field. The law essentially limits the use of "professional expert witnesses," who critics contend unfairly sway juries even though they may not have specific expertise in the field in issue.

Posted by Nick Zafran on March 27, 2009 4:14 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

Patent expert witnesses can help your client determine whether a competitor's new product infringes upon their patent. Perhaps need to find an expert witness to determine whether or not allegations made against your client's product are true. How can you find a top quality expert with the specific knowledge you need?

Dennis Crouch, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Missouri, recently conducted an analysis regarding patent litigation.  His findings indicate that our fictional product infringement description above is a very real problem for many practicing patent attorneys.  He observed that the number of patents being litigated has substantially increased over the last 20 years. "More complaints are being filed and more patents are being asserted with each complaint."1

One way to help ensure that your patent cases reach a successful conclusion is to seek help from an expert witness referral firm such as Round Table Group (RTG).  Round Table Group fulfill requests for patent experts more often than any other type of expert, says RTG's Nick Zafran, who has been researching and compiling the company's extensive billing data.

RTG's research has shown that patent experts bill for more hours than any other category of expert witnesses. "A medical expert often reviews a single person's medical file," says Zafran, "but for patent experts, there can literally be hundreds or thousands of pages of documents to review."

Top-four fields and their rates

When seeking a patent expert, consider billing rates for the top-four fields:

1. Computer scientists.

They examine computer systems, Internet protocols, software source code and operating systems--and earn an average of $425 per hour, according to Round Table Group data.

"They're the most in demand, and the stakes involved in these cases are a lot higher," says Zafran, "so they feel that their rates can be higher."

2. Biomechanical engineers.

These experts review cases dealing with medical devices like heart valves and stents and earn an average of $386 per hour. "It's a very big area now, especially for us," says Zafran.

3. Electrical engineers.

They consult on cases that involve electrical devices, among them circuit boards, semiconductors and electronic power systems. These experts earn an average of $353 per hour, according to RTG data.

4. Mechanical engineers.

Cases typically involve mechanical devices such as pulley systems or automotive components, and engineers earn an average of $291 per hour.

Technical jargon translation

Patent cases usually settle, says Zafran, but attorneys nonetheless seek experts who can translate technical jargon into layman's terms. Round Table Group can make this step of the process easy.

"We can set up a phone interview so an attorney can get a sense of how well someone speaks," says Zafran. "If you went to one of the standard free lists to find an expert, you're not going to get that."

Attorneys also seek experts who have some--but not too much--experience. "They prefer experts that have specific expertise without appearing to be a hired gun," says Zafran.

"Finding someone who has experience with your product who doesn't go from case to case is hard to find on your own."

It is important to note that expert witness referral firms commonly present a rate higher than what an expert demands. The amount varies but is typically around $100. In exchange for this, expert services firms locate and vet hard-to-find experts in all specialties. These experts, at the top of their field, are often not listed on any free "expert" databases.

...excerpt from article written by RTG contributor Lisa Fields.

1  Patently O, patent law blog, Published March 17, 2008: http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2008/03/patent-litigati.html

Posted by Nick Zafran on March 18, 2009 4:33 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

The Legal Ethics Committee of the District of Columbia Bar has previously ruled that an attorney-client relationship is not created when a lawyer testifies on a party's behalf as an expert witness. The Committee equated the role of an attorney as an expert to that of a non-attorney expert. The Committee noted, however, that an attorney-client relationship can be created if the client reasonably believes that such a relationship exists and the attorney/expert fails to dispel such expectations.

Robert Ambrogi has written a excellent article on the ruling on FindLaw.