The Expert Podcast

…So how is an expert witness decided on for a court case as a licensed private investigator we've testified as an expert witness in many court cases and our reports have been used as expert witness testimony in cases, federal level local level. state court many different types of courts. And the reason for an expert witness is to back up evidence provided by one of the parties whether you're a plaintiff or defendant. If you have evidence presented in court, you want to have your evidence certified verified and made more clear and validated by an expert witness. An expert witness is somebody who is certified by the court as an expert in that field whatever that is. And it. Either presents the evidence directly or it. Pines. On an existing…piece of evidence…So how has this set up ? Who decides who's an expert who verifies an expert What do you have to do to be an expert witness ? Well, It's done by the party who is presenting the evidence. If you're a party presenting let's say a document and you want to verify the authenticity of that document. You may hire an expert witness who is an expert at authenticating documents and signatures. If you want to have some computer evidence some data brought in, you want to have somebody who comes in as a computer expert. That testifies that this. Data is accurate It's correct It was obtained in a certain way. There's no. Specific set around a reason of what an expert has to say. The expert is there to provide testimony. To support…evidence. Opinions facts. About a case now. When that expert is presented as an expert witness. They will first be certified by the judge and the, The party presenting the expert witness will notify the court We're intending to bring this expert. this is their credentials They have to have what's called the CV curriculum vitae, which says here is what my experience is. Here's what my expertise is Here's why I'm an expert. Right. We're an expert in many things. We want to come in to be an expert at brain surgery because we're not brain surgeons. So because we're an expert witness in one area it doesn't mean we can be an expert witness at everything. So, for example when we testify in court, one of the cases we did have to do with real estate records, forensics on documents for real estate. And the attorney representing the client. Presented evidence presented documents And they said, this person, me, this company, our agency. Is going to testify as an expert witness what these documents are what they mean what the standard of care is for these documents. And the judge asked the other side do you have any objection to this ? The other side can object They say no they're not an expert They don't know what they're talking about. The judge will make a determination of whether or not that expert witness is allowed to testify in court. In addition. The expert has to have credibility. They have to have. experience or knowledge in that area That's provable. To the satisfaction of the court. In addition, what they're testifying about has to matter to the court. We have a case where. We were. Offered as an expert witness. To a court. About a subject They have to do a documents and data. We've testified as an expert witness on the exact same. Subject. many times in the past. But in this case, The data didn't matter to the case. So the other side objected saying. They may be an expert, but this expert witness testimony is not relevant to the case. So that evidence was excluded. So there's many reasons why an expert witness can be accepted to the court. There's many reasons why it can be rejected. You could be an expert witness about anything. If you are a professional landscaper let's say for example, And there's some question about a contract of let's say some. Pest or disease on somebody's lawn that's killing the grass And somebody sues somebody over the fact that they have to spend 5,000 to put in a new lawn…The attorney could hire you as an expert witness. You don't have to be any certification You don't have to be any, you know degree from college. If as long as you have the requisite knowledge and expo. in a field you could be certified as an expert. It doesn't mean it's automatic, but that could happen. And…the party bringing you forward is gonna of want to make sure that they're bringing somebody forward That's going to be articulate in court know how to testify, know how to answer questions and also have a background as Bulletproof You don't want to bring somebody in court that's, you know has. You know major credibility problems where they don't I…have the, how should I say. The authenticity to be believed in court. The credibility can be challenged. So it's about the knowledge it's about the credibility And it's also about the relevancy to that case. If you're in a case…Evidence that's backed up by an expert Witness can be made more powerful. To the judge or even to a jury, if a jury is making a decision and there's two parties that each has as. that support their side. But one party has an expert witness to say yes, this evidence is valid This is what it means. This is what we do every day in our, in our industry. So you need to take this. At. Valid. facts for this party. As an expert witness it's a lot of…Authority that you have to help evidence become more understandable to a jury or to a judge or even. To have. More weight, put onto one particular argument versus another. So if you're a plaintiff or defendant in a case that's how expert witness can help you. if you are somebody who wishes to be an expert witness think about what field you're in, how you could help different cases make put your name out there Become visible to attorneys. Obviously if you're an attorney you know about expert witnesses, but. The other thing you want to do is if you have an expert witness on the other side, don't be afraid to perform due diligence on that expert witness. As an investigative agency we have. Performed investigations on the background of expert witnesses of the other side and found that they had prior convictions…for larceny for money laundering for fraud, for other types of. I guess crimes that would make their testimony not as believable. So…if you're an attorney, think about expert witness and what's going to help you but also don't be afraid to look at the other side's expert to see if you can impeach them or defeat them and keep them out of court to begin with. Or maybe even. Let let it go to the last minute And then right at the point of their testimony, doing something to mitigate it or diminish it So it doesn't hurt your parties your client's case.