Rhode Island Pre-Trial Expert Disclosure

Overview

KWVRS vocational, economic and life care opinions are offered in Rhode Island matters pending in the Superior Court, the trial court of general jurisdiction in the state's unified court system, whose jurisdictions are Kent, Washington and Newport counties and Providence and Bristol counties together; in the Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Court, which hears all disputes between an employer and an employee relating to workers' compensation; and in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, at the Federal Building and Courthouse in Providence. They are offered as well in the Family Court, whose Domestic Relations Clerk's Office processes all domestic relations matters, such as complaints for divorce, separate maintenance, child support, child custody and child visitation. The form and timing of an expert's disclosure follow the rules and any order that govern the case in its forum, and each KWVRS report is written so that counsel can meet that forum's disclosure requirement from it; attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case.

Rhode Island practice notes

• Plaintiff and defense counsel retain KWVRS for Rhode Island matters with the same methodology: the vocational evaluation, the life care plan and the economic analysis apply one method and the same published data whichever side retains the firm. Each report lists every document and data source its opinions rest on, the material the Superior Court's rules of civil procedure let the other side require the retaining party to produce for an expert it expects to call at trial.
• In the Superior Court, the rules of civil procedure let a party use interrogatories to require the other side to identify each person it expects to call as an expert witness at trial and to state the subject matter, the substance of the facts and opinions to which the expert is expected to testify and a summary of the grounds for each opinion; a party may depose an identified expert once the expert interrogatory has been answered; and in the absence of agreement between the parties as to the timing of those disclosures, any party may apply to the court for an order establishing a schedule of the interrogatories, responses and depositions. Written reports are not required under the rules' expert provision. KWVRS delivers its report to the date retaining counsel takes from the agreement or the order, written so that the interrogatory answers can be drawn from it; attorneys confirm the governing rule and its timing for their case.
• In the Family Court, whose Rules of Domestic Relations Procedure govern proceedings arising out of family relationships including marriage, divorce, separation, support, paternity, adoption and custody of children, a party may require any other party to disclose the names and addresses of proposed expert witnesses so that their qualifications can be investigated in advance of trial; a deposition of such a witness is taken only if the court orders it, on motion after hearing, on the ground that its lack will result in an injustice or undue hardship. At a pre-trial conference the Family Court may also consider the limitations of the number of expert witnesses. In a Family Court matter KWVRS works for either party's counsel with the same method, and counsel decides what is disclosed and when.
• For the Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Court, whose jurisdiction includes contested cases involving the rehabilitation of injured employees, the court's Jurisdiction and Overview page describes the basic procedure it uses for the majority of the claims filed. A pretrial conference comes first, to attempt to find common ground between the parties to settle the dispute; if the matter cannot be resolved, the judge enters a pretrial order, and either party may appeal from it by filing a claim for trial. At the initial hearing that follows, the court can mark all exhibits offered by the parties and determine the names of the witnesses who will appear; the trial is a full evidentiary hearing on all the issues raised in the petitions, at which the court follows the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence, and it closes with a decree containing the court's findings of fact and orders, from which the initial appeal goes to the court's Appellate Division. A KWVRS report for that court is prepared for trial, as an exhibit the court can mark at the initial hearing, and its author can be named among the witnesses who will appear.
• The Rhode Island Rules of Evidence, which by their own terms govern proceedings in the courts of the state with the exceptions they list, address expert opinion in their provision on testimony by experts: if scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify in the form of fact or opinion. Preliminary questions concerning the qualification of a person to be a witness and the admissibility of evidence are determined by the court. An expert's opinion may be based on a hypothetical question, on facts or data the expert perceived at or before the hearing, or on facts or data in evidence; underlying facts or data of a type reasonably and customarily relied upon by experts in the particular field in forming opinions on the subject are admissible without testimony from the primary source; and, unless the court directs otherwise, the expert is first examined concerning the facts or data on which the opinion is based. Each KWVRS report therefore states the facts and data its opinions rest on, with their published sources, and comes with its author's current curriculum vitae, so that the qualification and the basis of each opinion can be shown from what KWVRS supplies; attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case.

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