Expert Testimony

What You Need to Know About Expert Testimony

What is a Expert Testimony?

In a legal dispute, land surveyors can act in the role as an “expert witness.”  Typically the expert surveyor does three things;  (A) they ID, produces or opines on the authenticity of documents and data pertaining to the dispute, (B) the  surveyor can testify as to the relevancy of certain data and documents, (C)  the surveyor concludes with on expert opinion as to the matters at hand (often a boundary dispute).

 Your attorney Needs to Vette the Expert Witness

 Your attorney should take time to evaluate the surveyor as an expert.  You don’t want an expert witness that can’t handle the stress of the procedure and of  being questioned.   The expert witness should seen by the court as having a good demeanor, given the technical nature of the subject, and the difficulty of explaining technical subject matter.

Your attorney should also consider the breadth and depth of work that the surveyor has done in the past.  The attorney should contract with the surveyor long before the expert testimony is needed.  As surveyors, we need time to review and prepare information.

Not many attorneys know that the licensing of surveyors is largely a recent development in many states.  Although licensing is not any guarantee of the competitance of the surveyor.

The attorney should be aware of the qualifications of the surveyor.  The qualifications of the surveyor should be evaluated to determine how they will be perceived vis-á-vis credibility of the testimony.  There are no formal education requirement for surveyors in most states.

The attorney must also be aware of the competency of those assisting with the survey, who may or may not be trained personnel with the same experience and knowledge as the surveyor.  In larger surveying firms, detailed work is often handed off to assistants.  The assistants can be as important for the project and the expert testimony as the surveyor  her/ himself.