How Attorneys Vet Experts and Other Info

In their June newsletter, IMS Expert Services published an article by attorney Robert Ambrogi on How to Vet an Expert. He lists some valuable resources that you can use to check out the opposing expert or, even better, investigate yourself using the links he provides and see what information attorneys are reading about you.

One thread in the Rominger forum for expert witnesses has a couple of interesting "war stories" from experts. Hopefully you haven't insulted the judge as one expert thought he had!

Everyone who uses a computer and accesses the Internet or uses a network faces an increasing number of threats. Preston Galla of PC World has a list of 15 great, free security programs that will help you fight back.

Research Yourself Online

Attorneys occasionally write articles advising other attorneys on various methods and sources for finding or researching experts. I am vigilant about reading these articles, often written from a certain sector of law such as IP or medical malpractice, because every so often they list a tip that can help experts in that field reach their prospects.

Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch of Internet for Lawyers, recently wrote such an article, "Internet Research Digs up Private Matters", but with a slightly different slant. They look at research from the perspective of 'what if convential methods of background research were unavailable' --

"...lawyers will have to conduct their investigative research "outside the box" of public records -- and this may be easier than you think, because people increasingly post sensitive, personally identifiable information to the Internet via blogs, Web sites, podcasts, group discussions and social network sites."

When I researched a few names using ideas from this article, I frankly found it kind of scary in a 'big-brother' sort of way.

In addition to looking yourself up through the methods in the article, I recommend you put your name into Google (in quotes "John Smith") and other search engines every month or so and see what comes up. You might be surprised.