(un)Expert Witness

 

Many many many years ago as a fairly young lawyer I represented a homeowner who was in litigation with the builder of her house. 

She was, at best, a difficult client who thought she knew more than I did. (I learned a lot about when NOT to represent someone.!) 

The client had hired her own “Expert” witness, an architect who, when I did my job and talked to him before the trial, told me his education was by "correspondence school" (now it's 'on line' education). He had not gone to college, either. No judge would have accepted him as an expert witness. But he was the witness my difficult client had, so I had to do my best. 

In my favor was that the builder’s attorney was a ‘good old boy’ who had once built houses himself. He had not gone to law school but instead ‘read’ law which Virginia permits. 

On the day of the trial, I call the witness. I ask about his job, how long he’s been at his job, what type of structures he works on, but I DID NOT ASK ABOUT HIS EDUCATION because to do so would have been fatal to his being able to testify. 

After a few minutes of questions beating around the bush, the ‘good old boy’ says “We’ll stipulate that he’s an expert”. 

At that point I happily moved on to questions about the structure.

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