The interesting thing is that the cost of producing an expert witness has just been cut by Coronavirus and COVID 19. Experts can testify via various video mediums that are now appearing in most courtrooms. So what had cost thousands of dollars in travel expense and time expense in travel has been eliminated. And in most cases the time expense for both preparation and appearance at deposition must be paid by the opposing side. Once they do that you might get the judge to accept the video deposition in lieu of live testimony. (No guarantees).
But the remaining caveats about expert witnesses remains the same. While there are a few good expert witnesses around (besides myself) most of them won’t stand up under the fire of cross examination. Bill Paatalo is a good example of an expert who knows what he is talking about and can defend it on cross examination. And like me he has a good track record of being instrumental in either favorable decisions inc orut or favorable settlements out of court or both.
Don’t underestimate the position. The will do anything to wear out or dismantle an expert. I once had my deposition taken by 16 banks for 6 straight days 9am to 5pm. It was brutal, but I survived and they never transcribed the testimony. It was a class action MERS case; unfortunately the judge ruled that the class could not be certified which had nothing to do with my testimony that MERS was the equivalent of any fictional character like “Donald Duck.” The point is — can the expert’s testimony survive 48 hours of cross examination?
You need to be careful with this. Just because somebody calls themselves an expert doesn’t mean that they are an expert. An expert is someone with greatly Superior knowledge about something that is not easily understood by the trier of fact. And just because someone thinks that they’re an expert does not mean that a judge will let them testify as an expert or, even if they do, that the judge will give any weight at all to what the “expert” says.
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3 thoughts on “COVID19 might be the catalyst for expert witness testimony in foreclosure cases.”
Well — get it while is is hot. If one can squeeze out the money now. Yet judges — they just don’t like us.
We are headed for bad times. All this “stimulus” is going to cause hyperinflation. The old wheelbarrow “story” (sorry a ‘story”). My Dad used to tell me story from World War 1.(he was World War 11 and volunteered at age of 30 – only one to make it home of his friends). Money in the wheelbarrow was dumped because only the wheelbarrow was worth anything. Money no longer had any value. Everything goes in cycles — World War 1 – 1918 “flu.” The Great Depression – and, of course, The Great Financial Recession – covered up for over a decade. .
This virus is bad. And what it is doing to economy will be felt for a very long time. Of course, something “bad” was already done to the economy.
We need to manufacture here — assets — actual production. No more “consumer” economy. Even if we get a vaccine — we may not be able to produce it. We don’t have the facilities. We sent everything abroad – decades ago. And don’t give me “environment” stuff. If you don’t understand that we need to produce here there will be no environment to worry about.
If we don’t fix the mortgage fraud – as a whole – we will have no homes as a society. That is what has happened, and will continue to happen unless we wake up. Courts have to, finally, do their job. Maybe now the judges will realize — this affects them too.
THANKS!
Awesome. Now Start posting your prices and what it will get the homeowners.
Filing requirements also lessened in some courts