What Should an Expert Witness Look for in an Attorney or Law Firm?

 

Recently, a lawyer's group discussed in quite a bit of detail, the topic of what criteria a lawyer should consider when retaining an expert witness. While it is important for a lawyer to find a good expert to work with in litigation, it is also important for an expert to find a good lawyer.
My 33 years as a warnings expert has taught me that there are at least five rules that should help the expert maintain a healthy relationship with the lawyer.
1. Clear Statement of Objectives, Timetable and Fees. The attorney should tell the expert very clearly what the facts of the case are and for what area(s) of expertise the attorney is seeking
assistance. The best time to hire an expert is early in the case prior to the taking of
depositions (if possible) so that the lawyer will question witnesses in areas important to the
expert and the development of facts that may be useful in developing or supporting expert
opinions. Regardless, the expert needs to know the timetable for the trial and should avoid being hired at the last minute (unless the attorney is seeking a rebuttal witness). Obviously,
there should be a clear understanding of the expert's fee structure, retainer requirements
and payment schedule. A written letter of retention is best for both parties to avoid any later
misunderstandings about the expert’s assignment and payment procedures.

2. Experts must be allowed to behave as experts. Although this sounds obvious, attorneys must not prevent an expert from performing his or her due diligence (i.e., conducting
primary or secondary research necessary to the development of opinions). An expert should
never allow an attorney to determine what materials are important, or worse yet, e.g., what
specific quotations in a deposition are important for an expert to review. The attorney is
hiring the expert for their expertise and should allow them to use that expertise in their job.

3. There should be NO surprises for either party. While experts are performing their due diligence, they should communicate frequently with their client(s) and keep them informed
both about their findings and the amount of time they are expending in their preparation.
Similarly, the attorney should keep the expert informed about new developments in the case,
the availability of new depositions, exhibits or other materials, changes in the schedule, etc.

4. Pay the witness in a timely manner according to the exact terms in the retention agreement. It is amazing how many attorneys in my 33 years as an expert have dogs "that
have eaten their invoices.” Experts expect their client to be the attorney or law firm that has
retained them and should not have to wait for the law firm to be reimbursed (e.g., by an
insurance company) for the expert to be paid in accordance with their retention
agreement. Experts should not be distracted from their primary role as an expert by such financial issues.

5. Finally, don’t forget to tell the expert the disposition of the case. Months (or years) should not go by without an attorney telling the expert if the case indeed settled.

By Dr. Gerry

http://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldgoldhaber

The Inverted Pyramid

Newspapers provide the best examples of clear, concise, factual writing you can find anywhere. Journalists not only write superbly well, they do so extremely concise. When a news event occurs, they don’t have the luxury of spending several days to put together their text. At best, they may have a few hours.

Learning how journalists work can help you write better. Journalist use an ingenious technique called the “inverted pyramid”.Before seeing how it works, it would be useful to see where it came from.

A couple of centuries ago, poor literacy and primitive printing techniques meant that newspapers had few readers, few pages, and were published infrequently (once a week or even once a month). As literacy and printing techniques improved, the number of readers increased, the number of pages increased. And so did frequency. Most newspapers were published at least once a week, some 2 - 3 times a week. Many even became dailies.

This accelerating pace of production created a serious technical problem. In more leisurely days, if a story was too long for the space assigned to it, there was always plenty of time to either rewrite it or redesign the page. However, when newspapers became dailies, with large circulations this was no longer possible.

What newspapers needed were stories that they could cut off from the bottom. In this way, instead of laboring to revise a story at the last minute, they could simply remove the last few sentences or paragraphs, and the job was done.

In order to do this, stories had to be written in a very special way. It is of no value simply to cut from the bottom if the lost information is crucial for the reader to understand what the story is all about. Consequently, stories had to be written “top down”. All key information had to be concentrated at the beginning and all secondary information presented in declining order of importance. In this way text could be deleted from the bottom and no one would know that it had ever been there.

This story structure became known as the inverted pyramid. It worked extremely well because it not only solved the mechanical problem of overly long texts, it also turned out to be how people prefer to get their information, particularly when they are in a hurry.

With today’s computer technology, the mechanical problem that gave rise to the inverted pyramid is no longer relevant. However, because it constitutes the very basis of good writing, the inverted pyramid is still held widely used.

Imagine an upside-down pyramid, or rather a triangle, i.e. with its point at the bottom and the wide part at the top. The top, where all the key information is concentrated, is called the“lead”. The second part, which contains the secondary information (details), is called the “body. Try using this method and before you know it you too will start writing in a more concise manner and editing faster than you can imagine.

By William Gulya

Reference

Philip Yaffe, In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional.

The Rule of Thirds: How to Truly Listen

By Jeff Beals

“Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage,” wrote Publilius Syrus more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome.Such wise advice from ages ago has never been more relevant. In the modern professional world, we are suffering from a listening crisis. Actually, it’s a “lack-of-listening” crisis.
Whether your role is executive, managerial, sales, customer service or anything else, it is critically important to your success that you listen.

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” wrote Stephen R. Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Too often we get that order mixed up. We focus on being understood as opposed to understanding those with whom we live and work.

Ask any of the greatest salespersons or sales trainers what it takes to succeed. Chances are that “ability to listen” will be at or near the top of the list. Success in sales requires you to understand your prospective client before you can do any sort of pitching, convincing or persuading. The smart salesperson asks carefully crafted questions designed to drill as deep as necessary to find out what makes the prospect tick. Truly listening to those answers allows a salesperson to customize, or at least portray, the product or service in such a way that creates maximum appeal.

By the way, “truly listening” doesn’t mean you act like you’re in one of those cheesy “active-listening” workshops. Many people who have completed such workshops look like they are listening actively – they have an intense look on their faces, nod their heads and occasionally paraphrase what the person is saying – but they still don’t retain any of it. Active listening is much more about understanding than it is about facial expressions and head-nodding.

Super executive Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler, once said, “I only wish I could find an institute that teaches people how to listen. Business people need to listen at least as much as they need to talk. Too many people fail to realize that real communication goes in both directions.”
Iacocca’s statement reminds me of the old saying, “God gave you one mouth and two ears; use them proportionately.”
In other words, we should listen twice as much as we talk. I call it the “Rule of Thirds.”
Two-thirds of the time you spend talking with a colleague, client or a prospect should be focused on the other person. One-third of the time is focused on yourself.

“No man ever listened himself out of a job,” said former U.S. president Calvin Coolidge. Simply put, listening is one of the top skills required for professional success.
But be careful you don’t over-do it. Some people become so committed to good listening, that they become 100 percent “interpersonal givers.” In other words, they spend three-thirds of their time listening to other people. If you do this, people will tend to like you, because you allowed them to talk about themselves. However, if you fail to reserve your third, they won’t know anything about you or how your business can help them. Listen twice as much as you talk but don’t forget to pitch something about yourself.
Why is focusing on the other person so important? The answer is simple: most people are rather self-absorbed. Want proof? Here it is: I am my most favorite subject. My friend is his most favorite subject. You are probably your most favorite subject.
Saying “I am my favorite subject” sounds awful, but it is not necessarily a selfish or narcissistic thing to say. After all, I spend a lot of time working on my favorite subject. I have invested much in my favorite subject. The success or failure of my favorite subject determines the direction of my life and has a big impact on the people I care about. I sometimes lay awake at night worrying about the things my favorite subject has screwed up.
Most people are the same way.

If you show earnest, sincere interest in my favorite subject, I can’t help but like you. I can’t help but feel some sort of connection with you. Showing sincere interest by truly listening disarms colleagues and clients and paves the way for your success.
You might be wondering to whom you should listen. Who is worthy of your attention? Who deserves your best listening skills? That’s easy: everyone. You never know who has the right information for you or knows just the right person you need to meet.

Sam Walton, the late founder of Wal-Mart, once said, “The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. It’s terribly important for everyone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stock boys.”
When it comes to listening, remember to do it sincerely and remember that everyone counts.

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Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. You can learn more and follow his “Business Motivation Blog” atwww.JeffBeals.com.

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Contributor: Jeff Beals
Classification: Development