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Going rate for expert witness
Got asked to review a case across the state from where I live. Anyone ever done this? How much can you ask for per hour?
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12 Replies
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To you and others that will do this in the future, please [b]get payment, or a significant portion of payment, up front.[/b]
For example, agree to a chart review for $X/hour and a minimum number of hours to be paid before review.
If you ask for 4 hours and the documents arrive and are clearly going to be more, [b]ask for more before you do the review. [/b] You will hear so many stories of doctors that do a review and are never paid. You will hear of doctors that did many reviews for a specific firm, always got paid, and for whatever reason did a review for that firm without demanding payment up front and were never paid. The lawyer asking you to do this would never begin working on your case without receiving a retainer payment, neither should you. They will understand.-
This is what I get paid. I think the document review is a bit on the low end TBH but I like the company I work for so I keep doing it.
400/hour for document review, image review, writing report
2000 for a deposition (more if it goes over 2 hours)
6000 for a court appearance-
30 pieces of sliver
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Just one point to keep in mind: If a case is filed, and there is a trial or a settlement that requires court approval, judges can – and have – reduced expert witness fees if they are “excessive.”
And the judge gets to determine what is “excessive.”
Be aware that a lawyer may offer you a crazy rate, with the full knowledge that it will eventually be reduced by the judge.
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How does one get into this game?
Seems like decent side gig for a Rad with some free time.-
Quote from Waduh Dong
How does one get into this game?
Seems like decent side gig for a Rad with some free time.
A colleague of mine asked if I wanted to do some legal work and I said yes. So for me it was random. I think it’s hard to get the work unless you know someone or have done it before and established yourself as an expert witness.
I signed up for a random expert witness site and got like 2 calls over the last 5+ years. Both of them were some scummy med mal case where the doctor they were suing should not be getting sued IMO so I turned those plaintiff cases down.-
I like the 30 pieces of silver comment. So true.
I’ve done one deposition and was completely honest about what I thought about the case, which actually helped the defending radiologist in retrospect (the plaintiff asked for my help).
Was never asked again to do one.
Hint: The attorneys won’t tell you to lie but they seem to be ok with truth stretching, if it helps their case.
The whole ordeal just felt shady/dirty to me.
But, I’m sure it pays well.
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Once you get asked it opens more doors since the med-mal attorneys talk to each other. You could also reach out to a law group that specializes in this and send them your CV and cover letter. I’ve seen a rad who does it quite a bit and set up a website for it.
Quote from RadCog
Quote from Waduh Dong
How does one get into this game?
Seems like decent side gig for a Rad with some free time.
A colleague of mine asked if I wanted to do some legal work and I said yes. So for me it was random. I think it’s hard to get the work unless you know someone or have done it before and established yourself as an expert witness.
I signed up for a random expert witness site and got like 2 calls over the last 5+ years. Both of them were some scummy med mal case where the doctor they were suing should not be getting sued IMO so I turned those plaintiff cases down.
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When it comes to initial reviews, the medmal attorney doesn’t want you to tell him what you think he wants to hear. Most medmal cases are done on contingency. He only gets paid if he is able to settle or prevails at trial. So if you tell him that there is an error when there isn’t or if your assessment regarding the community standard of care is off, he may end up spending >100k to pursue a case that he has a low chance of winning. And dont underestimate medmal attorneys on both sides of the deal. The good ones focus on a particular area and are very knowledgeable on not only the legal side, but the literature regarding the particular area of medicine.
The good medmal attorneys (on both sides) have a go-to list of expert witnesses that they use. They tend to have pedigree CVs, academic affiliations, book chapters, society work and appoitments to things like FDA panels to their name. You are not going to break into that market by cold calling or mailing out your CV. If you are a nobody in the expert witness game, you’ll get the one-of opportunities to review a case for an attorney who does slip&fall and the occasional low hanging fruit medmal case.
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If the standard of care, by definition, is what a general radiologist would say about the case, then why would you need to hire all of these high-end ‘experts?’ You wouldn’t.
But, a trial is not about the standard of care, unfortunately. It’s about perception and jurors. Hence, the gamesmanship described above. It’s kind of BS to be honest.
Just legally protect your assets so that you can tell the attorneys to pound sand if they ever come for you.
Personally own nothing but control your own (hopefully hidden, legally of course) assets. Attorneys know that most doctors are good at hiding assets, so they go after your insurance company anyway.
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Quote from fw
When it comes to initial reviews, the medmal attorney doesn’t want you to tell him what you think he wants to hear. Most medmal cases are done on contingency. He only gets paid if he is able to settle or prevails at trial. So if you tell him that there is an error when there isn’t or if your assessment regarding the community standard of care is off, he may end up spending >100k to pursue a case that he has a low chance of winning. And dont underestimate medmal attorneys on both sides of the deal. The good ones focus on a particular area and are very knowledgeable on not only the legal side, but the literature regarding the particular area of medicine.
The good medmal attorneys (on both sides) have a go-to list of expert witnesses that they use. They tend to have pedigree CVs, academic affiliations, book chapters, society work and appoitments to things like FDA panels to their name. You are not going to break into that market by cold calling or mailing out your CV. If you are a nobody in the expert witness game, you’ll get the one-of opportunities to review a case for an attorney who does slip&fall and the occasional low hanging fruit medmal case.
This is true, but the most important thing to an attorney is how you perform in a deposition; and especially in a trial in front of a jury.
This is theatre, and how professional and convincing you present yourself is crucial. A good expert is extremely valuable. You have to be willing to ultimately testify to a jury for any case you review; although most cases won’t get there. Can you look in the eyes of jury members and pull it off? If you don’t like public speaking, or maybe person to person interaction is not your strength [remember we are talking about radiologists], probably not for you. If you are not sure, you will learn fast enough during your first depositions.
Lastly, I get the fact that we need experts for both defense and plaintiff, but do you want to be that guy sandbagging another rad? Think hard about that before you take a case.-
Quote from boomer
Quote from fw
When it comes to initial reviews, the medmal attorney doesn’t want you to tell him what you think he wants to hear. Most medmal cases are done on contingency. He only gets paid if he is able to settle or prevails at trial. So if you tell him that there is an error when there isn’t or if your assessment regarding the community standard of care is off, he may end up spending >100k to pursue a case that he has a low chance of winning. And dont underestimate medmal attorneys on both sides of the deal. The good ones focus on a particular area and are very knowledgeable on not only the legal side, but the literature regarding the particular area of medicine.
The good medmal attorneys (on both sides) have a go-to list of expert witnesses that they use. They tend to have pedigree CVs, academic affiliations, book chapters, society work and appoitments to things like FDA panels to their name. You are not going to break into that market by cold calling or mailing out your CV. If you are a nobody in the expert witness game, you’ll get the one-of opportunities to review a case for an attorney who does slip&fall and the occasional low hanging fruit medmal case.
This is true, but the most important thing to an attorney is how you perform in a deposition; and especially in a trial in front of a jury.
This is theatre, and how professional and convincing you present yourself is crucial. A good expert is extremely valuable. You have to be willing to ultimately testify to a jury for any case you review; although most cases won’t get there. Can you look in the eyes of jury members and pull it off? If you don’t like public speaking, or maybe person to person interaction is not your strength [remember we are talking about radiologists], probably not for you. If you are not sure, you will learn fast enough during your first depositions.
Lastly, I get the fact that we need experts for both defense and plaintiff, but do you want to be that guy sandbagging another rad? Think hard about that before you take a case.
Not all expert witness work is med mal. I stay quite busy doing insurance reviews after MVAs.
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