New York Expert Witness Testimony Services

New York vocational, life care and forensic economic opinions are offered in the state courts, before the Workers' Compensation Board and in the federal districts, and the testimony takes the shape each forum gives it. In the Supreme Court of each county, personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death actions take the expert's opinions at deposition and at trial, on direct examination and under cross-examination; within New York City the smaller civil claims proceed in the Civil Court of the City of New York, and matrimonial actions take the earning capacity opinion in the Supreme Court, with Family Court hearing support matters. Before the New York State Workers' Compensation Board the vocational opinion is given at the district office that hears the claim. Employment and disability claims under federal law go to the Southern District of New York, sitting in Manhattan, White Plains and Poughkeepsie, or to the Eastern District of New York, sitting in Brooklyn and Central Islip, and the Northern and Western Districts take the rest of the state. The core counties, their courthouses and the federal district that covers each are set out on New York's state page.

The engagement itself has four parts. The report comes first and is written to stand as the expert's disclosure: it sets out the method, the records and data it relied on and every opinion reached, so that it can be served and reproduced. Deposition testimony walks through that report under examination by opposing counsel, and trial testimony presents the opinions to the court or the jury and answers cross-examination on their bases. Remote testimony by video is given where the court permits it and counsel arrange it, on the same record and with the same exhibits. Rebuttal testimony answers an opposing expert: the opposing report is read against the same records and the same published data, each departure in data, assumption or method is identified with its effect on the opinion, and the rebuttal is delivered in writing, at deposition or from the stand.

Testimony is given by the roster's credentialed experts, each on the discipline of the report that expert wrote. The vocational opinion addresses employability and earning capacity, the life care plan the future care the medical record supports and its cost, and the economic opinion the present value of the losses the other two establish. Because the three reports rest on one set of records, the testimony of each discipline is consistent with the others, and because every figure traces to a named source, the opposing expert can rerun the analysis and cross-examination can test the opinion on its merits. Preparation with retaining counsel fixes the opinions to be presented, their bases and the exhibits and demonstratives that carry them, and anticipates the cross-examination before the deposition is taken.

New York's disclosure requirements are not the same in the state courts as in the federal districts, and the report is organized to the requirements of the forum where the case is pending; the New York expert disclosure page on this site summarizes the practice. Attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case. Deposition follows service of the report on the case calendar and trial testimony follows the court's calendar, so the report is retained first and the testimony is scheduled around it. New York matters are accepted at the KWVRS headquarters in Hackensack, New Jersey. Plaintiff and defense.