When a litigator or transaction attorney needs to make use of an expert, that adds another level of complexity to the process. Weston Anson, an expert witness himself, has written a book that will help guide general practitioners and litigators on how to best utilize expert witnesses.
“Expert Witnesses, Valuation & Damages: The Expert’s Point of View” is published by the American Bar Association and provides a set of guidelines for the lawyer-expert relationship. Mr. Anson’s book gives insight into the expert’s discipline and work product, and is an overview of how to manage the process of using experts.
The book is the first of its kind, and had its genesis in four interrelated thoughts.
- First, the ABA and many lawyers have been requesting some sort of tool to help lawyers understand how to better extract the maximum value from the use of experts.
- Second, the book is intended to fill a void, because there has not been one written specifically by a practicing expert on the subject of the process of experts working with lawyers and clients in litigation and business transactions.
- Third, there is a need for more solid information on experts: who are they and where are they? How do you find them and how do you test them? Experts are private by nature and almost cult-like in their protective approach toward sharing information.
- Finally, Mr. Anson has long felt a need to bring to the general and specialty legal communities an overview of how experts can best work with a legal team. As a practicing expert, he knows that little is written, and even less is talked about, in regard to the lawyer-expert relationship.
Mr. Anson’s book can be used during the process of arbitration, mediation, litigation, or during the course of a complex business transaction. Many of the guidelines suggested in the book will not apply in every case; in fact, suggestions regarding discovery or expert retention are just that – suggestions. Every situation is different; every transaction is unique.
The “Expert’s Point of View” is meant to be used as a complex road map that sets out multiple alternative routes to finding, and effectively working with, experts. The book is especially timely when the amount of, and the complexity of, litigation is increasing. This is also a time when the cost of litigation is continuously accelerating and when the number of valuation and damages cases being filed continues to rise at both state and federal levels. More experienced experts are being needed in all areas of valuation and damages cases.
Additionally, Mr. Anson had other specific goals in writing “The Expert’s Point of View” book:
- To provide an expert’s perspective on the litigation process
- To share the expert’s insights into the relationship between expert and lawyer during any assignment
- To help lawyers and other professionals understand the expert’s view of strategy during litigation
- To explain the expert’s viewpoint and work steps on a valuation and damages case
- To enlighten lawyers and others on the analytical process that an expert undergoes in any litigation
- To improve the level of communication between lawyers and experts
- To help lawyers maximize value from their experts during discovery, deposition, and testimony
These goals are based on Mr. Anson’s 20+ years as an expert, and feedback from colleagues in the “industry” of experts. What you read in the book is an honest consensus of thought on how experts feel and think about their work, and, in particular, how they look at their work in regard to their relationships with their lawyer client.
This expert speaks the truth.
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To obtain your copy of “Expert Witnesses, Valuation, & Damages: The Expert’s Point of View”, go here.