In this episode:

What makes a great expert witness on the very first call? We sit down with Dr. Shawn Zardouz, a double board-certified neurologist and pain management specialist, to break down the real work behind credible testimony: vetting case fit, demanding complete records, and staying fiercely objective from start to finish. If you’ve ever wondered how an expert prepares for hours of cross-examination or translates brain science into language a jury can trust, this conversation delivers a candid, practical roadmap.

The field is moving fast, and so is the role of the expert. Dr. Zardouz explains how emerging tools like diffusion tensor imaging and potential biomarkers are shaping TBI claims, and how neuromodulation is changing pain management beyond steroid injections. We also talk about collaborating with broader trial teams—neuropsychologists, accident reconstruction experts, and vocational specialists—to build consistent, defensible opinions. Throughout, we highlight practical steps attorneys can take to set experts up for success: provide complete records early, allot time for real review, and keep communication clear and respectful.

If you care about strong expert strategy, objective opinions, and medical testimony that jurors can follow, you’ll find a wealth of actionable insight here. Subscribe for more conversations with top experts, share this episode with a colleague who handles injury or TBI cases, and leave a review to tell us what you want to hear next.

Note: Transcript has been lightly edited for clarity

Host: Noah Bolmer, Round Table Group

Guest: Dr. Shawn Zardouz, President, Shawn Zardouz M.D. Inc

Noah Bolmer: Welcome to Engaging Experts, I’m your host, Noah Bolmer, and today I’m excited to welcome Dr. Shawn Zardouz to the show. Now, Dr. Zardouz is a double-board-certified neurologist and pain management specialist. He’s an expert on cases pertaining to chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, and concussions. His work has been widely published in medical journals, and he is a sought-after lecturer. Dr. Zardouz holds an MD from Wayne State University. Dr. Zardouz, thank you so much for joining me here today on Engaging Experts.

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: Thank you for having me, Noah.

Noah Bolmer: Absolutely. So, let’s talk about some of those first phone calls. What are the sorts of things—because remember, it’s a two-way vetting process. They’re vetting you as an expert, and you’re vetting them. You know, is this a is this a job that I have time for that I even want to take? What are the sorts of things that it’s important for you as an expert witness to cover during those initial phone calls with prospective counsel?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: Well, it’s firstly understanding what the case details involve, making sure that the case is a right fit. And I oftentimes will listen to the attorney regarding the case and sort of listen to what is being asked of me as an expert witness on this matter. And some of these cases involve traumatic brain injuries, some of them I’m being asked to comment on pain management complaints after a slip and fall accident or motor vehicle accident. I’ll let the attorney know my prior experience in this field and will also let them know that I can only render an opinion after I’ve seen the patient and or reviewed the medical records.

Noah Bolmer: When you talk about reviewing the medical records, have you already accepted the engagement once they start sending you things like, you know, medical records? Or are there times when you have to maybe sign an NDA, say, “Hey, I’m still not sure if I need to take the case, I need to look at some things. Some of this might be private.” How do you navigate that?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: Sure, that’s a great question. Oftentimes the attorney will let me know the case details, and if it’s a case where I do not feel comfortable accepting, I’ll let the attorney know. If it’s a case that involves the bread-and-butter issues that I’ve specialized in, then I will oftentimes sign the contract with the attorney and let them know my objective opinion. Whether it’s in his favor or not, it’s my role as the expert to provide the objective opinions based on the records that I’ve received and reviewed.

Noah Bolmer: Absolutely. A neutral objective opinion is absolutely crucial. Let’s talk a little bit about preparation. So expert witnesses are going into difficult situations sometimes. They’re going into hours-long, sometimes days-long deposition. Sometimes it’s a contentious cross-examination. I’ve had experts tell me that they like to drink coffee or they like to fast, they like to do yoga, they like to memorize the report. What are the sorts of things that you do to get ready for, let’s say, a cross-examination?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: I typically start by with reviewing my prior report that I generated when I evaluated the patient for the independent medical exam or the record review. I oftentimes will re-review the records and any imaging that might be available, and I try to anticipate the questions that might be asked of me during the cross-examination. Now, any question is fair game during a cross-examination, but I find that the times that I’m most prepared and [when] I can study the case as much as possible are the times that I do the best.

Noah Bolmer: Are there things that attorneys can be doing to make sure that you do have everything that you need? All of the appropriate documentation and sufficient time to be able to prepare adequately?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: Yes, absolutely. I think timing is very important. Making sure you have enough time. Making sure you have access to all the records that are necessary to render opinions. Sometimes I have cases where I just receive the radiology report, and I don’t have access to the imaging. And I try oftentimes to review the imaging as well as the report to render my opinions. But try to make sure that some of the records are included and that we have the whole file before I render any sort of opinion.

Noah Bolmer: Absolutely. Let’s move to the general for a moment. What are the things that you find meaningful about being an expert?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: That’s a great question. I initially entered medicine to treat and diagnose my patients, and that’s been very rewarding so far. But to do the expert witness work requires providing my background, training, expertise in the fields of neurology and pain management. And oftentimes I am breaking down complex medical issues in layman’s terms or in terms that are easily understandable to attorneys or to members of the jury. This has always been very fascinating to me and to try to break down and teach others as far as what I believe occurred in an accident or what sort of diagnoses are associated with this particular incident or injury, and what are the treatments that are reasonable and necessary?

Noah Bolmer: When you are communicating some of these potentially difficult or complex topics to what are probably laypersons, they’re not necessarily a jury full of MDs, right? What sorts of techniques do you use? Do you use analogies, perhaps visuals? How do you go about communicating these and telling the story in a way that is digestible to lay persons?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: I think every case is going to be different depending on what I’m explaining. But if we break down a concussion, for example, I’ll oftentimes use visuals and sort of explain how the brain works and how the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa. But oftentimes it involves using visuals, it involves using layman’s terms as far as the different areas of the brain, what they control and how they manifest with the symptoms that maybe the patient is experiencing.

Noah Bolmer: So, you’ve been doing this for a while. Let’s talk a little bit about changes. You know, how has this role changed since you very first got started?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: Yes, I think the role of the experts has changed over the years, in part because of the advances in the field of medicine. And I’ll give you some examples. For example, in neurology, for TBI or traumatic brain injury claims, the advent of newer diagnostic tools has changed the role of the expert as far as what the experts asked to opine on. And one specific example is that is the DTI imaging, which is a fancy evaluation of the MRI of the brain sequence, it is now being—it was initially brought out for research purposes and is being done on some of these TBI claims currently. Now it still remains in a research basis and not sort of the standard of care, but I think over time we will see other diagnostic tools, maybe other tests, maybe biomarkers, for example, which will help assist in the evaluation of traumatic brain injury cases. I always think it’s important for the expert to stay on top of the research, to stay on top of the data, to stay on top of the evidence. And these questions will always come up in depositions and trials and things like that.

 

Noah Bolmer: What do you do to stay on top of everything? This is such a dynamic field. Everything’s changing. There’s so much technology, there’s so much being discovered, there’s so much research. How do you even begin to stay on top of it all?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: Absolutely great question, and I think in order to do so, to stay on top of the curve, is by educating myself and reading research articles, attending conferences, communicating with other providers in my specialty. One field that’s really evolved in the field of pain management is field of neuromodulation, which is using electrical pathways to block pain signals. Traditionally, we’ve used steroid injections and epidurals, and facet injections and steroids have been the mainstay treatment for patients with inflammation and pain. But nowadays we’re using the field of neuromodulation to help our patients in ways where these steroid injections either don’t work, or they’ve lost their efficacy. And some of these cases that involve expert witness engagements also when I review the records, some of these patients have undergone treatments with neuromodulation. And it’s important to stay on top of the field to be able to render an opinion as it pertains to these treatments.

Noah Bolmer: Let’s talk a little bit about trial teams. As you know, as a lot of experts know, we don’t exist in a vacuum. There’s more than just the attorney and the expert. Typically, there might be an entire team, there’s a group of experts, there might be damages experts, technical experts, lots of different types of experts, in addition to assistants and paralegals and other members of the team. To what extent do you collaborate with other members of the trial team?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: It all depends. Every case is different on what the attorney is asking of me. If the attorney asks me to communicate with other members of the team, then I will do so. Sometimes I’m being asked to communicate with a neuropsychologist on the case if it involves a traumatic brain injury. Other times I’m being asked to communicate with an accident reconstruction expert or an expert who specializes in vocational rehabilitation that may comment on future losses. I will oftentimes communicate with other experts to get an understanding of the entirety of the case and to make sure that the opinions that I’ve rendered are only available until I’ve evaluated all aspects of the case.

Noah Bolmer: Let’s back up to the very beginning. You’ve accepted an engagement where we want to get off on the right foot, we want to have an effective, an efficient, and maybe even a little bit of a fun engagement. How do you get started on the right foot and how do you maintain that momentum throughout the expert witness attorney relationship?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: Sure, I think that the relationship between the expert and the attorney revolves around a couple of things. One that involves open-minded communication and discourse. One that involves respect. We’re busy as experts. I’m sure the attorneys are busy, so respecting each other’s time, we understand one another, we’re respectful of one another, and that we’re willing to learn and teach one another the areas that we’re being asked to comment on.

Noah Bolmer: Is it difficult as an expert or an expert witness to try and teach attorneys things, or are attorneys largely receptive to learning?

Dr. Shawn Zardouz: I think the attorneys that I’ve worked with are receptive to learning. Oftentimes they’ll be the ones that are reaching out to retain the services of an expert like myself. And I try to educate them as much as I can as far as maybe the MRI findings, my examination findings. If there’s any questions that they have, I try to answer it to the best way that I can.

Noah Bolmer: Dr. Zardouz, thank you so much for joining me here today.

Dr. Shawn Zardouz Thank you for having me Noah, I really appreciate it.

Noah Bolmer: Of course. And thank you as always to our listeners for joining us for another edition of Engaging Experts. Cheers.

Dr. Shawn Zardouz, President, Shawn Zardouz M.D. Inc

Dr. Shawn Zardouz is a double board-certified specialist in Pain Medicine and Neurology, and the only physician in Newport Beach with this distinction. He holds a B.A. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and earned his M.D. from Wayne State University, graduating with honors in biomedical research. His postgraduate training includes an award-winning internship at Loma Linda University Medical Center, a neurology residency at UC San Diego, and a prestigious pain medicine fellowship at UCSD—recognized as the nation’s top program. As a Qualified Medical Examiner, Dr. Zardouz is an expert in treating traumatic brain injuries, chronic pain, CRPS, whiplash, post-concussion syndrome, and various neuropathies.