Expert Depositions in Employment Litigation: Attacking an Opposing Expert's Qualifications, Opinions and Methodology

Expert witnesses are frequently called upon by employment litigators to help prove or disprove liability or damages. Mental health experts, economists and vocational rehabilitation experts are commonly used in discrimination and retaliation cases. Effective skills in deposing an opponent’s expert can significantly impact the resolution of an employment case.

Successful expert depositions require in-depth preparation prior to the deposition, the ability to use sophisticated techniques during the deposition to successfully gain admissions from the expert to support a Daubert challenge, and savvy to leverage information gained during depositions to your client’s benefit during trial or settlement negotiations.

Listen as our authoritative panel addresses approaches for conducting depositions of the opposing party’s expert in employment litigation. The panel will discuss best practices for obtaining deposition testimony that can be used to impeach or disqualify an expert from testifying at trial and to gain leverage for favorable settlements. Our authoritative panel will provide techniques for eliciting favorable testimony from even the most seasoned expert witnesses.

1. Preparing for the deposition
   1. Attacking the expert’s qualifications
   2. Prior opinions and testimony
2. Deposing the expert
   1. Gathering testimony for a Daubert challenge
   2. Setting up the expert for impeachment at trial
   3. Identifying holes in opinions for settlement leverage

The panel will review these and other key issues:

• Preparing to attack the expert’s qualifications
• Locating expert’s prior opinions and testimony
• Attacking the expert’s methodology at the deposition
• Setting up deposition testimony for use in Daubert motions
• Increasing settlement value by discrediting the opposing expert