Litigation

Expert Depositions: Pay Attention to the Dates on the Expert's CV

By Evan Schaeffer

When an expert's CV attempts to summarize a long career, you can often get some good fodder for cross-examination by paying attention to the dates. Did the expert's real-life work experience with the subject of his testimony end years before? Did it just begin? What was the date of the expert's most recent publication? The date of the most recent publication on the topic about which he's testifying?

Questions like these raise interesting topics for cross-examination. At a recent trial, I saw an expert cross-examined along these lines--

You have a section in your CV titled Honors and Awards?
The last honor or award that's listed is dated 1978?
You haven't received any honors or awards since 1978?
That's when you were teaching?
But you haven't done any teaching in three decades?

For more about cross-examining experts, see also these related posts: "Preparing for Expert Depositions by Looking Ahead to the Cross-Examination at Trial" and "Cross-Examining Experts During Depositions: A Tip."

For those who have my book Deposition Checklists and Strategies, see also Chapter I, VII, Expert Depositions, and §1:216 Five Ways to Hit Homeruns with an Expert's CV.

Full post as published by The Illinois Trial Practice Blog on January 15, 2008 (boomark / email).