![]() Yet, if plaintiff attorney uses a damages expert and defense does not, the average award was $418,355, a ‘gain’ of $238,038. year ending July 1988, the results are striking: average award if no plaintiff expert and no defense expert was $180,317. While the records were limited to California courts and the award information dated, viz. ![]() Robert Trout (1991) used civil court records to consider the impact of use of an expert on the size of jury awards. Texaco (1987) that not having a defense expert is very risky. Others may recall a lesson from Pennzoil v. These examples raise several fundamental questions that the litigator needs to address.įirst, why use a damages expert at all? While the use of a damages expert is more and more common, some defense attorneys may still feel disclosure of a rebuttal damages expert worsens their chances of success, especially when they feel zero damages is the proper outcome. This case also settled, as most do settle, thus avoiding trial. In the second case, an economist assessed net operating profits (=projected profits less mitigation) using multiple regression methods. In the first case, an economist rebutted the plaintiff’s expert report, noting numerous errors, and the case settled for below $1 million. What to do? How to compute losses?Įach of these was an actual case. He relocated his operations to a nearby strip-mall temporarily but lost equipment, over 5000 files containing patient payment, treatment, and medical histories. In another case, you are asked to represent a dentist whose practice was interrupted due to an explosion and fire that destroyed the building housing his office. from a top university who teaches economics and has many publications. What should you do? Plaintiff’s expert is a Ph.D. A plaintiff attorney has hired an economist whose report on damages for one person, a Korean leather goods importer, exceeded $200 million. Imagine you are lead counsel on an airline crash case in which more than 200 lives were lost, each involving a wrongful death case. (A prior version of this paper appeared as an article for the Daily Recorder, Sacramento, California) Effective Use of Economists as Expert Witnesses
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