How To Become An Expert Witness
Expert Witnesses are increasingly becoming more and more important as attorneys are searching for qualified individuals to provide expert legal assistance and litigation support in cases. Nowadays there’s experts in almost any field like Insurance, Finances, Aviation, Accounting, Oil, Medicine, Forensics, Orthopedics, the list goes on. This is because there’s always a need for attorneys to find experts who can use their industry experience to evaluate claims, form opinions, and testify in court based on their own expertise.
However, this raises the question, “Do I need to have a certain occupation in order to be an Expert Witness?” According to the law, if you’ve gained experience through education or training you can be qualified in any field. Generally speaking those who like to problem-solve, are curious, find purpose in finding solutions, and like working in fast paced environments are most likely to enjoy and thrive as an Expert Witness!
Requirements of Being an Expert Witness
Other than being experienced, trained, and educated in your area of expertise, an Expert Witness is also required to explain and write their professional opinion in court. They must be able to do this by reading and analyzing information well to be prepared to give their opinion when needed.
In order to do this successfully, Expert Witnesses are also required to see the value in what they can give and how they can deliver their expertise to the best of their ability.
How Much Should an Expert Witness Fee Schedule/Hourly Rate Be?
This is a very good and popular question because again, Expert Witnesses are crucial for providing litigation support to attorneys but with many having the same experience and education it can be difficult to stand out and be trusted. Therefore the important thing to understand when thinking about how to come up with a fee schedule/hourly rate is to disregard what you may already know from a business stand point.
Trying to compete with others by having a lower cost may actually turn attorneys away because the value of the amount of experience and education an Expert Witness has far exceeds the value of having a lower cost.
Attorneys know the higher the price, the higher the value and litigation support given. So the lower the price set the less attorneys may trust in the Expert Witness services.
Specifically, Expert Witnesses can charge from $100-150 an hour to $1,000 or even more just depending on how extensive and high-stakes the litigation support needs to be.
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