5.6.5 Presenting Expert Testimony on Direct Examination

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

Before your expert gives her deposition, or sets foot in the courtroom or arbitration hearing room, you need to go through an extensive pretrial preparation conference with the expert. This is necessary even if you and your expert have maintained good communication throughout the course of the litigation.^[39]

It is particularly important during the pretrial conference that the expert be broken of the sometimes professional habit of qualifying all opinions with terms such as “possible” or “might,” as some courts may exclude such testimony as not expressing the requisite level of certainty. If you have properly prepared the case, the expert should have no difficulty in abandoning these terms during testimony.

While there are...