Expert Witnesses: A Current Hot Topic

Shortly after the Henryville tornado in March, I posted a blog entry on possible legal ramifications of the decision made to send the children home early.  Because of that, I was very interested in a Campus Safety Magazine article by Mike Dorn, Hiring an Expert Witness? 10 Questions You Should Ask. 

It was an informative article, centered on the ten questions.  Those ten questions are mainly for school attorneys as they try to find the best expert witness for their purposes.  They are also good questions to keep in mind, in case your school or school district faces a lawsuit, something that happens more and more everyday to school districts across the country.

For example, Question #6, "Has the expert ever been litigated or have they litigated a client in relation to their work as a subject matter expert?" This is an important question.  If you are going to work with a school safety expert, do you want to work with someone who has sued, or has threatened to sue, the school district that hired them?  I wouldn't.  A related question is Question #9, "Has the expert filed protests and/or open records requests with campus and government organizations?"  As with any other field, working with a person who is an 'expert' is made more difficult if you feel intimidated or coerced into doing what that person says, regardless of your thoughts on the matter.  In no other field have I ever heard of an expert engage in such behavior, so I would not expect a school safety expert to do so.  If they have, I don't want them working for me.

One reader posted an excellent question, "What does it take to make a person an 'expert'?"  Mr. Dorn responded with what I thought was a good answer. But I think this question needs further delving.

For example, in the April issue of Campus Safety Magazine, my article 14 Severe Weather Survival Tips was the cover story, and I was referred to as an 'expert'.   The dictionary defines an 'expert' as "a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority: a language expert." I've survived two tornadoes.  One as a child while riding a school bus, once as an adult in 2002, an EF3 tornado that devastated the southside of Indianapolis.  I am a NWS-trained weather spotter, and have read FEMA documents and NWS Storm Prediction Center research extensively.  Yet I would hesitate to call myself an 'expert', as there is so much about tornadoes I don't know.  An editor at Campus Safety Magazine thought differently, so it wasn't my call.

In any event, I started doing a search on the Internet on 'How to become an expert witness.'  One of the results took me to Steve Babitsky, the founder of a website called SEAK.  He addresses this question, "The law says that you can be qualified by various methods. Most people think that, for example, you have to be a doctor, or an accountant or something like that. But the law says that you can be qualified if you have the education, training, or experience. And it's in the alternative, so that any one of the three is sufficient. So you can be a doctor and be qualified to testify about medical issues, you can be an accountant and testify about financial issues, you also could be a car mechanic to talk about mechanical auto issues. Even though the car mechanic doesn't have further education, his experience would qualify him to be an expert. And there are hundreds of different fields of expertise which people could be an expert in."

When asked about the skills needed, Mr. Babitsky replied, "Well, first and foremost is your education and training. Do you have skills? Are you qualified in a particular area? What is the level of your expertise? And, in addition to that, you have to be able to articulate your opinions, you have to be able to speak well and go to court when necessary. You have to be able to write well in terms of writing up a report. You need to be able to analyze information, just like they do on CSI or other kinds of forensic shows on television. You need to be able to look through a whole bunch of information and see what is legitimate and what isn't, and formulate an opinion and be prepared to express your opinion in writing - and in court, if necessary."

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