Massachusetts Pre-Trial Expert Disclosure

Overview

KWVRS vocational, economic and life care opinions are offered in Massachusetts matters pending in the Superior Court, a trial court of general jurisdiction whose justices sit in courthouses in every county; in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, which has divisional offices in Boston, Worcester and Springfield; before the Department of Industrial Accidents, which oversees the Massachusetts workers' compensation system; and in the Probate and Family Court, which has jurisdiction over divorce, child support, custody and parenting time among other family and probate matters. The form and timing of an expert's disclosure follow the rule and the order that govern the case in that forum, and each KWVRS report is written so that it can be served as that disclosure; attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case.

Massachusetts practice notes

• Plaintiff and defense counsel retain KWVRS for Massachusetts matters with the same methodology. The vocational evaluation, the life care plan and the economic analysis follow the same method and cite the same published data whichever side retains the firm, and each report names its sources so that the opposing expert can reproduce the opinion and dispute it on the merits.
• Disclosure timing follows the court's or the case's scheduling order. In the Superior Court, the clerk issues a tracking order establishing the deadlines for the stages of litigation, as the court's standing order on time standards states, and a case may also be assigned to an individual track by order of the court or stipulation of the parties. KWVRS delivers to the date retaining counsel takes from that order; attorneys confirm the governing rule and its timing for their case.
• Before the Department of Industrial Accidents, the department's dispute steps set when a report or testimony is used. The department's page describes the conciliation as an informal meeting with a conciliator from the department and the conference as an informal discussion before an administrative judge, who issues a temporary order if the issues are not resolved; a pre-hearing conference is conducted before the hearing opens; the hearing is the trial phase of the case, where Massachusetts rules of evidence apply, witnesses are called and a stenographer records testimony; and the Reviewing Board hears appeals of hearing decisions. KWVRS prepares a summary opinion for the conference stage and a full report for the hearing, with the evaluator available as a witness.
• The admissibility standard for expert opinion in the courts of the Commonwealth is stated in plain terms by the Massachusetts Guide to Evidence, prepared by the Supreme Judicial Court's Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Evidence Law: a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training or education may give an opinion when that specialized knowledge will help the trier of fact, the testimony is based on sufficient facts or data and is the product of reliable principles and methods, and the expert has reliably applied those principles and methods to the facts of the case. The proponent of the testimony establishes these requirements, and the judge makes a threshold determination that they have been met before the testimony goes to the jury. Each KWVRS report therefore sets out its method, the data relied on and how both were applied to the person evaluated, so that reliability can be shown from the report itself; attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case.
• In the Probate and Family Court, the Rules of Domestic Relations Procedure govern the proceedings for divorce, separate support and custody of minor children and the actions for spousal or child support, their modification included. By interrogatories a party may require any other party to identify each person that party expects to call as an expert witness at trial, to state the subject matter of the expected testimony, and to state the substance of the facts and opinions the expert is expected to give with a summary of the grounds for each opinion; on motion, the court may order further discovery by other means, and a party must seasonably supplement an answer that identifies an expert witness, the subject matter of the testimony or its substance. The court may also direct the attorneys to a conference that considers the limitation of the number of expert witnesses. KWVRS takes these engagements from either spouse's counsel with one method, and each report is laid out so that the answer to an expert interrogatory can be drawn from it; attorneys confirm the governing rule and its timing for their case.

Frequently asked