Expert Witness Pay?

[MartinV]

I was approached by an attorney to serve as an expert witness (Neurology) in an on-going case. I am interested in pursuing this. They asked me what my fee schedule would be. As this would be the first time doing this, I am looking for any guidance. What is a reasonable hourly rate? I don't want to give them a belligerent number, but also don't want to sell myself short. Thanks!

[childay]

There was recent thread on this

[Hank]

30 pieces of silver for baseless plaintiffs' bar work.

[VentAlarm]

I posted recently on the same thing.

Some advice I got was (some publicly given, some privately; some on WCI, some from people I know)

1) the lawyer doesn’t care what you charge - it doesn’t come out of his or her pocket. As long as it’s below their number, they won’t bat an eye.

2) you should make as much or more then you make in clinical work.

3) use blocks of time and minimums. 2 hours in court still wipes out your day.

4) varying responses on retainer vs not.

5) at a certain number, people assume your opinion is paid for. For example, if you say you charge $2000/h, they assumption is that you are being paid to be a mouthpiece for whomever is paying you.

6) do whatever you want for travel. Almost everything now is remote, and, as above, they don’t care. If you have to fly, no reason not to go business class. Someone I know had to fly last minute - only available ticket was 1st class and cost >$4k. No one batted an eye.

Personally, I decided on 400/h for work outside of the courtroom (e.g. chart review, talking to lawyer, etc) with 4h minimum and $500/h for in court with 8h minimum.

Not saying the above is 100% accurate, but it’s what I got from a handful of people.

[MaxPower]

It’s been a while since I’ve looked at this or did this, but I took the number of visits per hour, multiplied by my average wRVU per visit, and then multiplied that number by my $/wRVU conversion factor, then added like 25% for the inconvenience of doing it. I also set minimums and made sure to get some money up front. Also a clause where if they cancel within a certain time (as when they case settles before going to trial), they pay you a certain amount since you probably can’t reschedule your clinic.

To me, it needs to pay more than you’d make doing your regular job or it isn’t worth it.

[White.Beard.Doc]

The person who teaches a course on this says you should charge a minimum of $500/hr and $5000/day if they want you in court, as you will lose the entire day at work.

[FIREshrink]

The person who teaches a course on this says you should charge a minimum of $500/hr and $5000/day if they want you in court, as you will lose the entire day at work.

Which person and which course? Does this vary by specialty?

[White.Beard.Doc]

Which person and which course? Does this vary by specialty?

Here is link to the WCI blog post about this topic. This expert recommends charging $500-$900/hr.

https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/how-being-an-expert-witness-can-make-you-a-better-doctor/

[FIREshrink]

There have been a couple threads on this, are there a couple well accepted quality CME on this topic? Unfortunately I have to testify quite often for civil commitments; I don't want to start a side practice but I would like to be the best expert witness I can be.