A experienced personal injury attorney and law firm must have the financial capability to
afford expensive resources. It’s a fact that no one wants to say out loud. There, I said it.
Retaining experts, taking videotape depositions, traveling around the continent for the best experts and counter attacking the opposing experts is very costly.
The possible size of the money award should be factored into cost decisions, and if the case is worth five million dollars then spending $25,000 in costs for great accident reconstruction experts, forensics and trial exhibits is a fair expenditure.
If a law firm has 50 good but expensive cases, and some of them are in need of several experts, then the law firm will either have to be out of pocket for hundreds of thousands or take out a line of credit to finance these costs.
When I accept your child’s injury case I take all the risk of these costs up front.
I do not finance these cases with a line of credit, and I spare no expense.
If there is no money recovered then these costs cost my law firm and not you.
What do experts cost?
Frequent: Orthopedic Surgeon- $3,000 for two hours of videotape deposition. This is not the true cost, because you would have to add in the two hours of preparation beforehand, the videographer, the transcript. This brought the total to about $5,000. I also mention, that I use live witnesses whenever possible. The reason for the videotape is in case the Surgeon is sick and cannot attend the trial, or is going to be away on vacation or has an emergency.
Most cases settle, so many of the costs are not as big as the example about the Orthopedic Surgeon.
Frequent: Neurologist – $ 1000- $1500 a hour for deposition, not including the videographer or transcript of the Court reporter. In some jurisdictions, the cost can be lower. I find that in less populated areas, outside of big hospitals and larger cities, that the rates charged by these experts goes down to $500-$750 an hour.
Moderate: Drowning Expert – $6,000 for a day’s travel to the scene, to take measurements and then $3,000 for the report.
Extreme: Forensic Dental Expert – $10,000 for an hour. Yes. This was what it cost to take the deposition of a dental expert in a malpractice claim. Not the expert for my clients, the expert for the defense. I objected, and the Judge ruled it was a reasonable amount. We won a verdict and these costs were reimbursed to my firm.
Note : These examples are just a sampling, based upon my law firm’s experiences. Other attorneys may have different expenses, and certainly there are no hard and fast absolute rules about the costs any doctor or expert charges.
I have from time to time depending upon the facts and circumstances actually purchased the car of the other driver to protect the evidence, especially if it was headed for the crusher.
Also, I have dug up and cut out, transported portions of the roadway to preserve evidence
of the surface gradient and standing water runoff and retention factors.
