Nevada Rules Regarding Expert Witness Depositions and Interrogatories
Under Rule 26(b)(4)(A) of the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure, a party may depose opposing experts whose opinions may be presented at trial. Rule 30(d) limits depositions to one seven-hour day, provided that court must allow additional time if needed to fairly examine the deponent. Experts generally are not subject to interrogatories in Nevada, as the Nevada Rules instead provide for expert discovery through written reports and depositions.
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Nevada Expert Witness Reports and Disclosures Rules
The extent of required disclosures for experts in Nevada depends on the role they play in the case. Experts who will not testify at trial, but instead were retained only for consulting purposes, generally may not be subject to discovery absent exceptional circumstances under which it is impracticable for the party seeking discovery to obtain facts or opinions on the same subject by other means. The exceptional circumstances requirement presents a heavy burden for the party seeking discovery of a consulting expert, and such a claim appears to rarely be raised in the Nevada courts.
If the expert’s opinions will be presented at trial, Rule 16.1(a)(2) requires the retaining party to disclose the expert’s identify without waiting for a discovery request. If the expert is one who retained or specially employed to provide testimony in the case or one whose duties as an employee of the party regularly involve giving expert testimony, this initial disclosure must be accompanied by a written report prepared and signed by the expert. This report must include a complete statement of the opinions to which the expert will testify and the grounds for those opinions; the information considered by the expert in forming those opinions; any exhibits to be used as part of the expert’s testimony; the qualifications of the expert, including a list of all publications authored in the preceding ten years; the compensation to be paid to the expert; and a list of any other cases in which the witness has testified in the preceding four years.
Rules Regarding Lawyer-Expert Communications, Draft Expert Witness Reports, Expert Witness Notes, Etc. in Nevada
Although Nevada Rule 26(b)(3) provides protection from discovery for attorney work product, neither the Nevada Rules nor cases address whether communication from an attorney to a testifying expert of materials that would otherwise be protected work product renders such materials discoverable. See Craig R. Delk & Douglas J. Duesman, Nevada Civil Practice Manual § 16.05 (2015) (explaining that the provisions in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that protect draft expert reports and attorney-expert communications from discovery are “nowhere to be found in the [Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure] at this time”).