The Expert Witness Website
By Jim Robinson, Esq.
President, JurisPro Inc.
Jim Robinson is an attorney, president of the JurisPro Expert Witness Directory (www.JurisPro.com). Mr. Robinson is a professional speaker and author. He has keynoted several legal conferences, and speaks annually before the California State Bar at their annual convention on where to locate expert witnesses. He can be reached at 310-372-6103, or at Jim@JurisPro.com.
According to the American Bar Association, 98% of attorneys use a computer at work, and 88% use the Internet for legal research.[i] The Internet is so commonly used that the courts have found that attorneys failed in their due diligence if they did not use the Internet for their research. One court chastised an attorney for not using search engines in his research, stating: “We do note that there is no evidence in this case of a public records or Internet search for Groce to find him. In fact, we discovered, upon entering 'Joe Groce Indiana' into the Google™ search engine, an address for Groce...”[ii]
With the importance of the Internet, a wise expert witness should make it easy for attorneys to find them on the World Wide Web. This article will discuss what should be included in an expert witness’ website.
The Purpose of Having an Expert Witness Website
As stated by Rosalie Hamilton, founder of Expert Communications (www.expertcommunications.com), attorneys come to an expert’s website to decide if the consultant:
- Works in the field needed;
- Is available to work as an expert witness; and
- Has, at first glance, the credentials that will satisfy the attorney’s need.
The average visitor leaves a website in 35 seconds, and over 80% of all visitors visit only one page of a website.[iii] Given the time pressure on legal professionals, attorneys will leave a site even quicker. Attorneys are only paid for time they can bill. Attorneys cannot bill a lot time surfing your expert witness website. As such, you only have only a few seconds to clearly communicate to the attorney that you are available as an expert in the field sought, and you have the necessary qualifications to be retained.
An expert witness should have a website that is:
- Quick to download
- Well-organized and easy to navigate
- Up-to-date
- Professional
The professionalism of an expert witness website needs to be emphasized. For some attorneys, your website will be their first impression of you as an expert witness. You do not want the attorney to think you are unorganized or amateurish. Also, most Internet users are no longer impressed with the heavy use of graphics or “flash introductions.” This only slows your site, and is frustrating to the attorney. Keep your website straight forward and professional.
What to Include in Your Expert Witness Website
There are two schools of thought on how much information an expert should include in his or her website. On the one hand, the argument is that there has never been an attorney who wanted to know less about the expert he or she is going to hire. Attorneys want to see your full curriculum vitae, your fee schedule, any articles you have written, and your prior litigation history. In fact, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (which has been adopted by many state courts) compel the attorney to provide a listing of other cases in which the expert has testified at trial or by deposition within the preceding four years, a list of the publications authored by the witness within the preceding ten years. [iv] Therefore many experts provide these items on their website to make it easy for retaining attorneys.
From a marketing perspective, some experts prefer to include only a short profile, and then provide further information upon request. Those in this camp emphasize that an expert can better present himself over the phone or in person better than they can online, and the expert risks being excluded prematurely by providing too much information on their website. Also, it should be pointed out that anything that is available to the retaining attorney is also available to the opposing counsel.
The best approach for the expert is to provide a short summary on the home page, and then provide easy to navigate links to allow the attorney to delve more deeply into your qualifications. Here is an example of a paragraph on an expert’s website that accomplishes this task (www.machineexpert.com):
Mr. McCarthy is a mechanical engineer experienced in determining defects in products, such as machines, that have caused serious injuries or losses. He has extensive experience as an expert witness. Mr. McCarthy specializes in the analysis of products regarding safety including machine guarding, instructions, and warnings. His 30 years experience as a machine design engineer and forensic consultant in hundreds of personal-injury product-liability cases makes Mr. McCarthy one of the foremost machine safety experts. He has qualified as an expert witness over 100 times in a variety of state and federal courts. [v]
This expert then includes his photo, easy to read bulleted lists of the types of services he provides, a list of the types of machines previously analyzed, and links to find out more information. He also provides his contact information prominently at the top of each page, which is essential. Such a website allows the attorney to easily evaluate the expert in a short amount of time, and contact the expert if he is right for the case.
Conclusion
Expert witness websites are like business cards – attorneys expect you will have one. Your website should be easy for attorneys to use, and professional. It should also provide easy access to contact you after learning of your qualifications. This can lead to more case retentions.
The next article will address how to position your expert website, and optimize your site for search engines.
[i] The 2004-2005 American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey
[ii] Munster v. Groce, 829 N.E.2d 52 (Ind. App. 2005) http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/indianastatecases/app/06080501mpb.pdf.
[iii] “Internet Marketing Strategy and Philosophy” by Bruce Clay Internet Business Consultants, http://www.bruceclay.com/web_pt.htm
[iv] Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26(A)(2)(b):
“Except as otherwise stipulated or directed by the court, this disclosure shall, with respect to a witness who is retained or specially employed to provide expert testimony in the case or whose duties as an employee of the party regularly involve giving expert testimony, be accompanied by a written report prepared and signed by the witness. The report shall contain a complete statement of all opinions to be expressed and the basis and reasons therefor; the data or other information considered by the witness in forming the opinions; any exhibits to be used as a summary of or support for the opinions; the qualifications of the witness, including a list of all publications authored by the witness within the preceding ten years; the compensation to be paid for the study and testimony; and a listing of any other cases in which the witness has testified as an expert at trial or by deposition within the preceding four years.”
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