Nadine: Hi, I’m Attorney Nadine Donovan from SEAK, Inc., the expert witness training company. I’m here with the founder and president of SEAK, Mr. Steve Babitsky and we’re here to talk today about the two-day interactive training course, “Advanced Trial Skills Workshop for Expert Witnesses.” So Steve, who should attend this course?

Steve: Nadine, experts of all disciplines and levels of experience who want to markedly improve their trial skills and performance. The techniques are universal and not specialty specific.

Nadine: So Steve, how important is the ability to testify well for expert witnesses?

Steve: Nadine, it’s crucially important. How well an expert witness testifies at trial can make or break the expert witness’s career. When you testify at trial well, word spreads, and your expert practice will grow. If you testify poorly, unfortunately the word spreads as well, and your expert witness practice will suffer or can be destroyed. The bottom line is if you can’t testify well at trial you can’t be a successful expert witness.

Nadine: How interactive and hands-on is this class?

Steve: The class is extremely interactive. All attendees will be involved in a mock testimony. Exercises will have practice and perform the skills taught. This is crucially important. If you have to learn how to testify you want to learn at a training course, not in the middle of a trial.

Nadine: What will the attendees at this class learn?

Steve: Nadine, they’re going to learn a lot of material: techniques to present a more powerful and persuasive testimony, ways to connect with and persuade the jury, methods to improve their communication skills, techniques to increase their credibility, how to diagnose and artfully answer trick questions, and best practices for seizing opportunities during cross examination.

Nadine: Do you cover deposition testimony in this class?

Steve: This is an in-depth course on testifying skills. We have a separate course on depositions.

Nadine: How do you personalize this course for the attendees?

Steve: Each attendee is requested to submit a report if available and a C.V. We then conduct independent research about each of these attendees. We then utilize this information during mock trial exercises, where we bring people up in front of the room, we give them unscripted questions, they have to answer live, and we pressure them a little bit to see how they do under pressure, and it’s a tremendous learning opportunity for them, and also for the other attendees who are watching them perform under stress.

Nadine: Are continuing education credits available for this course?

Steve: For many disciplines, yes. Please give us a call at 508-457-1111 to discuss whether or not we have credits for your specialty.

Nadine: Where can experts get upcoming dates and locations for your courses?

Steve: You can find our current list of expert witness training here,  or give us a call at 508-457-1111.