We're pleased to announce that Round Table Group is now part of Thomson Reuters, the leader in providing intelligent information to businesses and professionals. Round Table Group will be aligned with the Thomson Reuters litigation businesses and will complement the expert witness content on Westlaw, the preferred online legal research service for lawyers.

The combination of Westlaw's expert witness content and Round Table Group's services will provide our litigator customers with an enhanced service and a more comprehensive, integrated litigation solution, and will allow us to bring our consulting services to an expanded client base through Westlaw.

We expect the transition to go smoothly. Experts can continue to turn to the Round Table Group's expert services team and other business contacts for information and service.

While I am a big fan of market forces determining an expert's billing rates, there has been an interesting ruling recently that has led me to re-think this philosophy, at least in specific situations. In this matter, one party (plaintiff) hired a neurosurgeon expert at a staggering 5000.00 for the first hour, 2,000 an hour thereafter, which of course is their right. If they want to pay an expert that amount, well, good for them. But when the opposing party (defendant) has to pay for the expert's time in a deposition, they got stuck with that rate as well. Is this fair?

In her Dec. 30 ruling, (Crawford v. American Legion Ambulance Association) a New Jersey federal magistrate judge thinks its not, calling $7,000 for two hours work "near to being extortionate".

Check out the whole story here.

Our booth at the INTA Conference is in a terrific, high-traffic location that is attracting a lot of fascinating IP folks. Although several hundred litigators have stopped and met us, many of our visitors have been experts, who are making the most of this remarkable gathering to network with law firms and other vendors.

I love talking with the experts here. Many are from Europe, Asia and Latin America, and chatting with them has been useful in getting industry intelligence about trends. I have heard three main things from the expert witness industry: first, a large percentage of Experts complained of slow payment, or delayed work; second, most Experts predict an increase in IP litigation in the near future - between 6-10 months, by anecdotal account; and third, many are looking to re-build or create professional connections with low or no-obligation alliances through which they may better position themselves to develop this expected business resurgence.

The shared sense that the slowdown is ending is reassuring. Most of us have noticed, and felt in substantial ways, the ripple effect of the economic downturn. What I found quite interesting was how many experts described how they were positioning themselves for the anticipated surge in economic, and medical device litigation.