Steven Babitsky, Esq. The United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico dealt with a motion to set aside or reduce a jury award of $12,966,000 for a child born with cerebral palsy due to medical negligence. The court upheld the verdict despite the lack of expert testimony on the issue of life expectancy. The court [...]
Steven Babitsky, Esq. Opposing counsel may make a mistake during cross-examination of an expert witness. Experienced expert witnesses know how to take advantage of these opportunities. Here is how two experts capitalized on the mistakes of opposing counsel. “Sometime ago I was asked to be a defendant’s expert witness in a medical malpractice case. The [...]
Steven Babitsky, Esq. Counsel may, during cross-examination of an expert witness, take a statement out of context before the jury. The expert needs to be ready to take advantage of this opportunity. Here is how three expert witnesses explained how they effectively dealt with their opportunity. 1. “The defense attorney asked me to comment on [...]
Steven Babitsky, Esq. Experienced expert witnesses can and do selectively strike back against opposing counsel during their cross-examination. Here is how some expert witnesses described their experiences. 1. “Q: Doctor, when you take a medical history, are there specific techniques you use to get the answer you want out of a patient? A: I did [...]
Steven Babitsky, Esq. State and federal courts are encouraging and, in some cases, requiring litigants to proceed with virtual litigation. Hearings In Madonna Ciccone v. One West 64th Street Inc., the Supreme court New York County 6514748/2016 9/4/2020, the court required, due to Covid-19, that a fee hearing must go forward by videoconference. Bench Trials [...]
The U.S. District Court E.D. New York dealt with a request for a virtual bench trial in a voting rights act case. The court granted the request for the virtual bench trial and stated: In terms of good cause, plaintiffs argue that "COVID-19 creates perhaps the most compelling circumstances in history in favor of conducting [...]
The U.S. District Court D. New Mexico dealt with the plaintiff who was in an automobile accident. The plaintiff was travelling in New Mexico at the time of the accident but lives in Kentucky. The defendant sought to have the plaintiff, who has Multiple Sclerosis, travel back to New Mexico for the IME. The court [...]
Steven Babitsky Esq. One of the biggest misconceptions about who can become an effective expert witness is that you need to be an extrovert to do this well. Over the course of my career I have talked to hundreds of experts in all fields who essentially said the same thing: “I am an introvert and [...]
The U.S. District Court (E.D Missouri) dealt with the plaintiff, Bayes, who sued a biomedical company, Biomet, for a defective hip implant. The defense sought to exclude the life care planner, Corwin, who is ACRC and a certified life care planner. The court denied the motion to exclude, stating that the methodology was sufficiently reliable. [...]
Steven Babitsky, Esq. Expert witnesses may find themselves working on a case for multiple attorneys who have the same client or clients with similar interests. In these cases, the attorneys may propose that they ‘share’ paying the expert for their services. The expert should seriously consider rejecting this proposal for the following reasons: Assuming that [...]