Expert witnesses play a myriad of important roles, including evaluating cases and crafting strategy. Their most important role, however, is as teacher — per rule 702, “help[ing] the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.”
Attorney Teena-Ann V. Sankoorikal has relied on expert witnesses throughout her career to give impartial, authoritative information to help judges and juries understand their industry’s best practices and idiosyncrasies:
[Experts] help to distill difficult concepts, help to explain and make clear what is known in certain areas and what is within the purview of an expert, because [while] I can say it, it is not the same as when an expert who has ’x’ number of years’ experience says, “This is the way the math works. This is the way science works. This is [the way] the technology works.”
For some matters, assisting the judge, jury, and attorneys is a key role that begins at a very basic level; expert Laura DiBella, notes:
We are educators. We are consultants. We are there to explain a world that is completely foreign to somebody else. [For instance, my specialty] maritime is foreign to many people, so simplifying it into words that they understand was my job when I was working for the [Florida] Harbor Pilots. Nobody knew what a harbor pilot was, so I had to be the first to tell them […] and explain what they do.
It is tempting to encourage your expert to tune their testimony as favorably for your client as possible, but there is a fine line between teaching and selling, and experts must stay firmly on the educational side of that line. Attorney Kirk Watkins warns:
What I want more than anything else is somebody that wants to teach the judge and the jury, as opposed to persuading them. If I can persuade the expert that my side is right, and that what we are doing is what he should be teaching to the judge and jury then he is going to do that automatically, and he is going to do it very effectively. If I am trying to get him to sell something that he may not fully believe in, I am going to have a problem with him.
Many expert witnesses are professors or industry experts with experience training less experienced colleagues in their fields. But not every expert is a good teacher. Early in your evaluation process, determine whether the expert can explain complicated concepts in a way that is easily understood by laypersons. If an expert is a great teacher, they can reliably illustrate any intricacies in their domain and clarify the issues you need the court to focus on. And, if they are new experts, make sure they understand their role as teachers, and that they should leave persuasion to you.
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