Wednesday, May 23, 2007

President Bush and Expert Witnesses

Here's one to make you think: As reported in LegalNewsline.com President Bush just signed an executive order that prohibits expert witnesses being paid on contingency.

Even if not legislated, hasn't the avoidance of contingency payment been understood, accepted, and practiced by experts for quite some time? Opposing counsel has always been willing to tear up an expert witness for such an arrangement, so most retaining counsel and experts have avoided the practice. (Also, I thought it was already illegal in some states.)

Am I missing something?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Meredith,
The State of Mississippi, as well as some others, specifically prohibits CONTINGENCY contracts. I know of at least one multi-million dollar engineering consulting fee that was voided because it was declared to be a CONTINGENCY contract.

Charles B. Ivy,PhD,PE
850.916.5104
ibchas@bellsouth.net
www.IvyEngineering.com