Evaluation Expert Witnesses

Program evaluation becomes contested when an organization's results, or the methods used to measure them, carry legal and financial consequences. Government contractors, healthcare and education service providers, foundations, and companies that operate workforce, wellness, or social service programs frequently face disputes over whether those programs achieved promised outcomes. Pay-for-performance contracts, grant compliance reviews, False Claims Act investigations, and termination disputes can all hinge on whether an evaluation was designed and executed soundly. The central question is often not simply what the results were, but whether the evaluation methodology can reliably support the conclusions drawn from it.

An evaluation expert helps attorneys scrutinize how outcomes were defined, measured, and attributed to a program. The expert can examine study design, comparison groups, sampling, data quality, and statistical methods, distinguishing rigorous experimental and quasi-experimental approaches from analyses that cannot separate program effects from outside influences. In contract and grant disputes, the expert can assess whether performance metrics aligned with the agreement, whether data collection followed recognized evaluation standards, and whether shortfalls reflected program failure or flawed measurement. That analysis frames liability, informs causation, and supports or rebuts damages claims tied to performance-based payments or alleged misrepresentation of results.

Evaluation testimony is most persuasive when it comes from researchers who have designed and defended large-scale evaluations under real-world constraints. Round Table Group can identify evaluation methodologists, applied statisticians, and policy researchers whose backgrounds include organizations such as the RAND Corporation, Mathematica, the Urban Institute, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office, along with faculty in public policy and education research. Those experts understand both the ideal design for an evaluation and the practical tradeoffs organizations make, which allows them to give a fact-finder a balanced assessment of what the evidence can support. Our more than 75,000 expert searches for litigators help us align the right methodology and subject-matter background with your dispute. To discuss your evaluation matter, contact our team by calling us at (202) 908-4500.