In our last post of 2016, we talked about why you should become an expert. In a nutshell, curating expertise makes you healthier, wealthier, and wiser – and brings the added bonus of opening up new revenue streams, like becoming an expert witness. To kick off the new year, let’s move past the “why” and into the “how.” What does it take to become an expert witness?
Developing expertise itself, of course, takes time and commitment. The levels of each will depend on your area of expertise, your personality, and probably thousands of other variables. But becoming an expert witness is a much more straightforward process. Here’s how it works at ECS.
- Get in touch. The first step to expert witness status is reaching out to a selection service like ECS. Give us a call or shoot us an email. We’ll discuss the terms of our contract, including fees, rates, and what specific services ECS provides, like billing and collection, scheduling, document management, placement, and more.
- Determine your rates. If you’re new to the expert witness process, we’ll help you figure out how much to charge.
- Sign the contract. If the terms look good to everyone, we sign our contracts.
- Provide your paperwork. Once contracts are signed, we help you gather the paperwork you need to appear as an expert in court. This may include your resume/CV, fee schedule, testimony list (the federal courts and many state courts require an expert to disclose any deposition or trial testimony that you’ve given in the last four years) and publication list (the federal courts and many state courts also require disclosure of any publications in the last ten years.)
- Confirm licensure. If your area of expertise is one that requires a license, like an engineer, doctor, or accountant, we’ll check your license to make sure that it’s active and clear.
- Get started. You’re officially an expert! When the paperwork is complete, we enter you into our database and contact you with any case we receive that is within your area of expertise. You are always free to accept or decline any case we send your way.
- Take a case. If you are qualified, interested in, and available to take a case, we send your information to the attorney. The attorney then has final say over whether to retain an expert for that particular case.
- Get paid! If the attorney chooses to retain your services and you go to trial, we help manage all the logistics. You share your expertise with the court, we take care of the back end, and you get paid in real money and service to the U.S. justice system.
That’s all it takes to go from a very educated lay person to an expert witness. Whatever your area of expertise, consider taking it further this year. Make 2017 the year that you become healthier, wealthier, and wiser – not to mention well-stocked with interesting anecdotes for your next dinner party.