Qualifying & Attacking Expert Witnesses

Proficiency studies for many types of expert analysis show a disturbingly large number of mistakes. Intelligent probing can uncover many of these mistakes.

Let Robert Clifford’s Qualifying & Attacking Expert Witnesses show you how to dig deep for unreliable testimony, no matter how sterling the expert’s credentials. The book details dozens of high-potential attacks, including:

Failure to consider other causes
Subjective testing
Insufficient sample
Anecdotal evidence
Temporal relationship
Erroneous extrapolation
Research prepared for litigation
And others

Perhaps no litigation task is more important than diluting the effect of the opposition’s expert. Qualifying & Attacking Expert Witnesses devotes 200 pages to tactics, cases, and checklists specific to these experts:

Appraisers
Contractors
Criminologists
Doctors
Document examiners
Economists
Employment experts
Insurance experts
Linguists
Psychologists
Physical facts experts
Transportation engineers

The book's organization makes it easy to find information you need and tactics that will work. Example Q & A illustrate methods of attack specific to different types of experts. Bulleted lists of practice-proven tactics are found every few pages. Much of the book's advice is boiled down into step-by-step checklists. Key points are well-supported with detailed relevant cases.

Just a few of the tips and tactics found in the book include:

Selection

Finding persuasive experts. §130
Controlling expert witness costs. §151
Cheap substitutes for experts. §152
Avoiding conflicts of interest. §160

Discovery

Deposition preparation. §202
Deposition instructions for your expert. §211
Disclosure of expert’s work product. §242

Trial

Sample voir dire questions. §301.1
Qualification questions that keep the jury focused. §334
Presentation checklist. §330
Demonstrative evidence rules and considerations. §332
Daubert tactics. §345.2
Challenges to computer-generated information §346, government reports §346A, and industry standards §347
Objections to cross-examination. §348

Attacking the expert

Pretrial challenges to scientific expert testimony. §406
Checklist for establishing unreliability. §415
Preparing the expert witness trial binder. §422
Checklist of bases for motion in limine. §423.1.4
Grounds for disqualifying the opposing expert. §424 et seq
Objections to direct testimony. §425
Checklist for effective cross-examination. §431
Fruitful areas of cross-examination. §433
Tactics for showing lack of basis for opinion. §443
Restricting demonstrative evidence. §470

Use expert witness testimony to your advantage, even your opponent's expert. This briefcase-sized book offers tactics, checklists and case law that make easy work of preparing to deal with expert witnesses from initial discovery to trial.

Updated annually. ISBN 0-938065-39-4 Book price: $99.00

Reviews

"It is likely that the lawyer who has not read Robert Clifford’s book will not have met that high standard of careful preparation."

—C. Carlsen, Jr., Portland, OR

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Related Titles:

Preparing for Trial in Federal Court

Trial Evidence Foundations

Trial Hearsay

Trial Objections

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Updated 11/11/09