trial witnesses
How are expert witnesses motivated?
<p>As a party to a court case, how can one motivate to testify a person who has the wanted expertise? Offer them $$$? (Let's not consider those expert witnesses who make living by testifying / actively seek to be engaged. Those are motivated already, but the choice of areas of expertise is very limited)</p>
<p>A typical potential expert witness this question is about may have never been in a courtroom or even engaged a lawyer in their life. When someone approaches them asking &quot;<em>I see you have well-recognised experience in X, would you be interested to be an expert witness in a court case? The question for you would be &lt;specific question about a certain aspect of X&gt;</em>&quot; — they may not even have an idea whether they would or not. They would perhaps like to hear some legal advice about it, but why even bother seeing a lawyer? So, their instinct tells them to just pass as it is totally unknown area to them with unknown risks. Especially if the case they are asked to testify in is a criminal one.</p>
<p>So, how to get those people motivated? How to entice them? How do lawyers do it?</p>
<p>(I have approached about a dozen of Labrador retriever breeders/trainers asking them to testify whether a Labrador retriever would typically chase/attack ducks just by iteself — as opposed to having to be encouraged/commanded to do so. I made it clear that they would be paid and have all expenses covered. Yet only 2-3 of them even bothered to reply, and all those replies were along the lines &quot;not interested&quot;, excuses like &quot;I'm not an expert&quot; etc.)</p>
<p>Related: <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/4859/how-do-lawyers-find-expert-witnesses">How do lawyers find expert witnesses?</a></p>

<h2 id="its-their-job-8vb4">It’s their job</h2>
<p>Or, at least, part of their job.</p>
<p>For some, like state-employed medical examiners it’s an explicit part of their job description that they will give expert testimony when required.</p>
<p>For others, it can be something they choose to do as part of their business, either as a side-gig to their “day job” (most experts). Or because their primary business is dispute resolution, this includes many professionals who become arbitrators or expert determiners and offer their services as expert witnesses.</p>
<p>In both cases, it’s a job for which they get paid, and usually, paid handsomely. For example, all the engineering companies that I have been part of charge 3-4x their normal fee for legal work partly because it’s demanding work that distracts from their core business but mostly because of market economics - people will pay more for an expert witness than they will for a consulting engineer even when they’re the same person.</p>
<p>It’s also difficult and nasty work - no one enjoys writing reports that they know are going to be attacked over every inconsistency. As for giving evidence and being cross-examined? Even at $500/h, you’re getting a bargain.</p>
<p>Other people may be motivated by the noble ideal of a just cause. Me? Here’s my bank account, make sure the money’s there before I testify.</p>
<p>So, how much were you offering?</p>

<p>The other answers have covered good reasons, but here's one more: when you serve as an expert witness, it demonstrates that at least some people hold you in high regard as an expert on your subject, even high enough regard to pay you handsomely and (to varying extent) stake the outcome of their legal case on your expertise. Having served as an expert witness in a trial is also normally a matter of public record, so it is independently verifiable.</p>
<p>So, people may choose to serve as an expert witness in order to improve their credibility as an expert in their subject area. Being able to say that you have served as an expert witness means you really <em>must</em> be an expert, and that looks good on a resumé or in an advertisement for your consultancy business.</p>

<h2>Or because they have to.</h2>
<p>The other answers are all correct. In practice, @DaleM is &quot;most correct&quot; because the lion's share of expert witnesses either voluntarily agree to do so because they are paid to do so, or because it is part of their job responsibilities (especially people like medical examiners). But @user6726 is not wrong that public spiritedness is sometimes a factor, and @kaya3 is not wrong that improving one's professional reputation is sometimes a factor.</p>
<p>These answer omit the second most common reason that someone testified as an expert, however, which is that they are compelled to do so by subpoena.</p>
<p>Generally, expert witnesses participate voluntarily and are called &quot;retained expert witnesses&quot; who are hired for a particular case. But, sometimes someone who is primarily a party to a case, or is a non-expert fact witness in a case, also has expertise qualifying that person to be an expert witness, if this expected testimony is disclosed when required under court rules.</p>
<p>A typical example would be a treating physician in a personal injury case. The treating physician testifies as a non-expert fact witness (and may be compelled to do so by subpoena) regarding facts about which the physician has personal knowledge such as the fact that the plaintiff in the tort case was treated by the physician (at the scene of the accident on the way to a kid's soccer game, since the physician was passing by) with heavy bleeding from an artery on his right leg and lacerations all over his exposed skin.</p>
<p>But, once the treating physician is on the stand, the physician can also be qualified and examined as an expert witness, whether the physician wants to do so or not, about the physician's expert opinions regarding the matters upon which the physician render lay testimony. For example, the treating physician might be asked: &quot;in your professional opinion was the plaintiff's leg injury the cause of his inability to walk without a cane today?&quot;</p>
<p>Generally speaking, someone compelled to testify as a non-retained expert is still entitled to compensation as if he were a retained expert, at a court determined rate reflecting the expert witness's usual charges for this work, if this is disputed (in contrast, a purely non-expert witness is entitled only to mileage to the court house and a fee roughly sufficient to pay for lunch in amounts set by statute).</p>
<p>Similarly, a party to a case who has pertinent expertise, may and often does testify as a non-retained expert witness, in addition to testifying about the facts of the case (although testimony about the facts of the case is not required for a party-expert), whether or not the party is subject to a subpoena. In this case, the party is not entitled to compensation for testifying (even if called by another party in the case and not in the party's own case). The compensation/motivation is the same as the compensation for testifying as a lay witness (i.e. the ability to provide truthful information to the court to support their case) and the cost for a party-witness is reduced because the party has to be at the trial anyway in some capacity in most cases.</p>

<h1>It's not their job</h1>
<p>So you need to give them something of value to them. Money might be a motivator. Or, the subject matter might be the motivator. I'm omitting the third category of people with a work-related obligation to testify (government lab workers), which reduces to money (&quot;testify or get fired&quot;). Typically there is a relationship between what a person does for a living and what they are expert in, but the scope of the job obligations usually don't involve serving as a general purpose expert witness.</p>
<p>An example of subject-matter motivation is testimony about language interpretation, such as in a contract or a statute. There is an increased recognition in the US that there is a scientific area of studying language, and expert testimony can inform a judgment as to the possible interpretations of a clause. Experts in this area may be motivated to testify (for a nominal honorarium) as a public service.</p>

<p>I do not consider myself an expert in this field, but I can speak from personal experience.</p>
<p>I've frequently been asked to testify as an expert witness.  Each time, money was waved in front of me (not literally, mind you) to testify.  Also, almost every time, someone bought me a nice meal during a meeting they set up to ask me.</p>
<p>The only incentive ever offered to me has been financial.</p>
<p>I've turned down 100% of these requests, although I've enjoyed a few nice meals.</p>
