By Pete Rooney – San Joaquin College of Law
Love them or hate them, if you are involved in any type of litigation, then you understand the necessity of having expert witness testimony. It is never a question of whether you need to use an expert witness, only which is the best one to testify on the concept, subject, or topic that will potentially convince a jury to side with your client. So, how do you track one down and make sure that they will be useful to your case? As part of our continuing series of articles on law practice support, I thought I would provide you with some online resources to assist you in finding, evaluating, and selecting an expert for your case.
Advertisements for experts can be found in just about any attorney directory, or bar publication out there, but there are a few websites that collect a large number of names with some nice features that are all in one place:
ExpertPages www.expertpages.com touts itself as the original and leading directory of experts. The site is free to use. It is nicely organized and easy to navigate with features that allow you to search by name, type of expert, jurisdiction, or by legal subject area. Each listing provides you access to the expert’s curriculum vitae (CV) and some background information. The site also offers a range of articles on expert witnesses and expert witness subject matter.
Experts.com www.experts.com/ is a great site that offers free access to experts and consultants for a wide range of needs beyond litigation. The site offers extensive search features to find experts based on subject matter or specialty. The information is very detailed, providing extensive CV, background, publication, and contact information for each expert. It also provides a wide range of articles and other resources on subjects related to expert witnesses and consultants. This site has a lot to offer.
Heiros Gamos www.hg.org/experts/expertises.html provides an extensive worldwide directory of law firms and legal services. One of the services is a free legal expert directory. The site allows you to do a keyword search of names and subject matter. The listings give a broad range of background and CV information on each expert. The site provides links to other litigation support services as well.
Washburn University www.washlaw.edu/expert/ maintains a wonderful free legal resources site called Washlaw. The site offers a wide range of federal, state, and international resources as well as a collection of links to specific experts and broader expert directories. This list is not really organized in any detail, but it is quite extensive. It is a good place to start if you are trying to figure out what types of resources are available.
Once you have found the potential expert you are looking for, you will still need to investigate whether he/she will be effective and beneficial to your case. To assist you in evaluating the expert, there are several sites that provide background research on experts. These sites are not free, but do offer a wide range of options that allow you to better evaluate your selection, and/or your oppositions. To that end there are a couple of sites that offer expert research:
Lexis’ Expert Research On-Demand https://idex.lexisnexis.com , formerly IDEX, provides a legal expert research service that includes over 200,000 experts. It is a pay site that provides extensive documentation on the expert’s background, history of prior cases, prior testimony, and even prior opposition testimony. This site collects detailed information on each particular expert and offers a wide range of pricing options to customize or tailor your research to your particular needs.
The Defense Research Institute http://www.dri.org/ is a Defense Bar membership organization that offers, for a fee, a searchable database of experts as well as profile and background research. This site is catered toward defense firms and provides information beyond just expert witnesses.
Though certainly not an exhaustive list of what is available, these online expert directories and services should give you a good starting point. They will, hopefully, help you find a great expert, who will provide compelling testimony and opinion, and your case will be successful – at least until the Daubert standard (Daubert v Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals 509 US 579 (1993), and its progeny are adopted in California State Courts and expert opinion testimony is curtailed…
On the Shelf
If you are a solo practitioner or work for a firm that practices “door law,” then CEB has a new practice set tailored for you. California Basic Practice Handbook is a convenient reference that enables you to rapidly identify frequently encountered issues in a wide array of practice areas; avoid traps that otherwise might be overlooked in evaluating a case; and decide whether a client’s issue is one you can realistically handle. Located at SJCLL Call Number: KFC80 .C3 2012 Holding Location: Row 17
Civil Procedure Before Trial: Claims and Defenses, by Justice Rebecca A. Wiseman and Sara Church Reese, published by the Rutter Group. This book is designed to provide an overview of a range of causes of action in civil litigation, including elements, defenses and remedies. Located at FCPLL Call Number: KB194 .W57 C15 Holding Location: Stack #34.