Ask the Expert: What is a Expert Witness?

Ask the Expert is sponsored by Gideon Aisen. An expert witness can really make all the difference in a case. Taylor Aisen with the Gideon Aisen Law Firm is here to help us understand why. Taylor, thanks so much for having us here. It's It's your Portland office. Let's just kind of start with the basics. What exactly is an expert witness and how is it different than a regular witness? In most types of personal injury case, whether it's a truck accident, a medical malpractice case, you need someone with a specialty in the industry to say that someone did something wrong. Right? So if you're suing a doctor, it isn't enough that you or I think that the doctor did something wrong. You need an expert. The problem with that or one of the issues with that can be experts are very expensive. Some types of experts are more than others, but they tend to be very expensive. It is not a place where you want your lawyer to be cheap. Right. So why can the right expert really make or break a case? The expert, if you go to trial, is going to be the person who explains to the jury in common language, a language we can all understand, why the person who harmed you did something wrong. So in a medical case, that person's gonna explain why the doctor did something wrong. Having an expert who is credible, who is articulate, and who can communicate to normal people like us is a very, important to winning your case. How can I tell though if my attorney is using the right expert witness? Well, that's a really good question. The best way to do that is to ask beforehand. Do you have access to good expert witnesses? Do you have the money to spend on getting making sure we get the right experts in a case? How do you go about getting experts? Those are really important questions to ask when interviewing a lawyer. What might be some red flags that this is not the right expert for our case? Well, one thing about experts is you don't want somebody who just tells you what you wanna hear. You want somebody who's willing to tell you the truth. The my favorite kind of expert is one who says to me, I usually work for the other side, for the defense. If they're willing to work for us, that means we're gold. Excellent. If anybody would like more information, how do they find you? They can look us up online or get us on phone. Excellent. Taylor, thanks so much for having us. Certainly appreciate it. Of course My pleasure. Would like to mention as well, we'll have more information on w g m e dot com.