This article deals with the aspects of personal injury expert witness.

Most legal cases, both civil and criminal, will involve testimony from witnesses. A witness is a person with firsthand information that is related to the case. The best known example is an eyewitness, or a person who saw an incident as it unfolded and is willing to relate his or her story to the court. Another very common example is an expert witness, who is a person with expertise in a certain field related to the crime or accident being discussed.

Expert witnesses generally work for pay. They can be hired by both defendants and prosecutors (or plaintiffs, in civil cases). An expert witness may offer facts and insights to an attorney and his or her client while they are researching and building their legal case. In addition to this – or instead of it – the witness may share testimony directly with the judge and/or jury.

Examples

An expert witness can be almost anyone who knows more than the average person about a certain topic. Common examples of witnesses for plaintiffs in civil claims include:

  • A doctor or other medical professional who can discuss the plaintiff’s injuries, how they likely occurred, how severe they are, or how they have affected the plaintiff’s life
  • A mechanical or electrical engineer, who can explain the flaws in a building or product’s design or construction
  • A psychological expert, who can describe the emotional effects that the incident in question caused for the plaintiff

As you can see, an expert witness can do a lot to either make a case stronger or pick the other side’s case apart. Fortunately, legal regulations are in place to prevent attorneys from abusing the system of expert witnesses to unfairly manipulate or even lie to juries.

The Legal Process

If you and your attorney decide that a qualified witness would help your case, the first step is to find a reliable one. Of course, the witness you hire will need verifiable qualifications, in order to prove that he or she does in fact know more about the subject than most people. You will also need to demonstrate to the judge overseeing your case that his or her area of expertise is related to your case.

If the witness for your case will be testifying at the trial or hearing, he or she will need to complete a deposition. This is a kind of recorded interview attended by everyone involved in the case. During this interview, attorneys for both the plaintiff and the defendant will be able to ask as many questions as they want. When the witness testifies, his or her story cannot vary from the information reviewed in the deposition.

Finally, there are restrictions on the information a witness can share. He or she must stick to facts that are directly relevant to both his or her field of expertise and the case at hand. He or she cannot share any personal opinions about the case or make non-factual statements.

For more information about the legal process, contact the Charlotte personal injury lawyers of the Law Offices of William K. Goldfarb.

Personal Injury Lawyer Information:

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Filed under: Personal Injury Law

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!