By James J. Mangraviti, Jr., Esq.
Expert witnesses are commonly questioned about their fees and earning from expert witness work. Such questioning can be particularly effective in instances like the below expert witness deposition questions on fees where the witness appears evasive.
Example: Expert Witness Deposition Questions on Fees
Q: Okay. How much did you receive in fees for doing your examination and report?
A: I received the usual and customary fee.
Q: And what is that?
A: I am not at liberty to provide that.
Q: Well, sir, you’re under oath. At testimony here you’re sworn to tell the truth. How much did you get paid for preparing the report and performing the examination?
Counsel: If you know, go ahead and answer.
A: I would have to go look it up.
Q: Okay. How much are you charging for your time to testify here this morning?
A: Again, charging the usual and customary fee.
Q: Do you keep any records of how much you have made testifying as an expert witness on a yearly basis?
A: No.
Q: Do you have any estimate of what you have made as an expert witness in the last year, in 2011, since we all just finished our income tax returns?
A: No, we haven’t. I sent an extension in.
Q: Do you have an estimate of what you made in the last year?
A: I don’t.
Q: Do you have an estimate of what percentage of your income is derived from testifying as an expert witness?
A: Yeah, I think I could probably give you a guesstimate on that.
Q: How much have you billed to date in this case?
A: I don’t know.
Q: How much of your bill is outstanding?
A: I don’t know.
Q: Who would know?
A: My wife. She handles the billing.
Note how evasive the expert appears over questions that could have and should have been answered simply and directly. Some experts honestly don’t know how much they are billing because someone else in their office takes care of sending out the bills. To avoid such exchanges, as part of the preparation process your expert should find out what his rates and income are before testifying at deposition, how much he has billed to date, and how much is currently outstanding. Explain to your expert that it can appear a bit pompous when an expert states that he doesn’t know what he charges or how much he has billed to date. This can give a negative impression—as though he is too important (or rich) to bother with such “trivialities” that the rest of us would keep track of or at least know about.
James J. Mangraviti, Jr., Esq., has trained thousands of expert witnesses through seminars, conferences, corporate training, training for professional societies, and training for governmental agencies including the FBI, IRS, SEC, NYPD, Secret Service, and Department of Defense. He is also frequently called by experts, their employers, and retaining counsel to train and prepare individual expert witnesses for upcoming testimony. Mr. Mangraviti assists expert witnesses one-on-one with report writing, mentoring, and practice development. He is a former litigator who currently serves as Principal of the expert witness training company SEAK, Inc. (www.testifyingtraining.com). Mr. Mangraviti received his BA degree in mathematics summa cum laude from Boston College and his JD degree cum laude from Boston College Law School. Mr. Mangraviti has designed dozens of expert witness training programs and has personally taught experts in a group setting over 250 times since 1997. He is the co-author of thirty books.
