Expert Testimony Engagement Process

The engagement agreement fixes scope, the conflict check, the retainer and the dates, and identifies the underlying report: vocational, economic, life care or standard of care. Where a KWVRS report already exists, file review begins from it; where none exists, the engagement starts with the evaluation that produces one, since testimony closes an expert engagement rather than standing on its own as a product.

The report the testimony rests on and the file behind it, any opposing expert opinions, and the deposition transcript where trial follows a deposition, because the transcript is what the other side will use against any departure at trial. Add the notice date or trial window and whether attendance is in person or remote, so file review and the preparation session can be placed ahead of the date.

Yes. After the file review, the expert and retaining counsel work through the key opinions and their bases and anticipate cross-examination, before a deposition and again before trial. For trial the session also settles the order and scope of direct examination and the exhibits and demonstratives, and it is where a read of the deposition transcript is checked against what will be said in court.

Testimony itself: deposition testimony on the qualifications, methodology, records reviewed and opinions in the report, and trial testimony through direct examination and cross-examination, with the exhibits and demonstratives prepared for it. Vocational demonstratives typically set pre-injury and post-injury occupations beside wage data, economic ones present the present-value calculation, and life care ones show the plan structure and care timeline; supplemental opinions follow new records.

Yes, but it begins as the underlying evaluation, not as testimony. Where no KWVRS report exists, the engagement starts with the vocational, economic, life care or standard of care report the case needs, prepared and disclosed on that service's own process and timeline, and the testimony phase follows it. The vocational, economic, life care and standard of care pages describe those reports.

The expert responsible for the underlying report: vocational reports under Matthew Putts, the Chief of Vocational Services; economic reports under Christopher Skerritt, the Chief of Economic Services; standard of care reviews under Jesse Wolstein, the Chief Medical Director; and life care plans under the planner who prepared them. Each testifies to the methodology, data sources and opinions in the report that carries their name.