{"id":899549,"date":"2022-01-27T14:56:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T21:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=899549"},"modified":"2022-01-27T14:56:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T21:56:53","slug":"expert-witness-expert-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/expert-witness-expert-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Because I May be an &#8220;Expert&#8221; Does Not Mean I am Giving Expert Testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>David Adelstein | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridaconstructionlegalupdates.com\/just-because-i-may-be-an-expert-does-not-mean-i-am-giving-expert-testimony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Florida Construction Legal Updates<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a construction project, it\u2019s hard to argue that the involved parties \u2014 whether an architect, engineer, contractor, subcontractor, developer, etc. \u2014 are not\u00a0<strong>experts<\/strong>\u00a0in their field,\u00a0<em>i.e<\/em>., they all some scientific, technical, or specialized knowledge or skill particular to their industry.\u00a0 However, this does NOT mean when they testify in trial, at an arbitration, or at a deposition regarding the construction project they are offering <a href=\"http:\/\/adviseandconsult.net\/experts.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expert opinions \/ testimony<\/a> as it pertains to that project.\u00a0 Testifying as to facts based on personal knowledge or involvement on a project makes you a\u00a0<strong>fact witness<\/strong>\u00a0and is different than evaluating and rending an after-the-fact opinion as to the work of others. \u00a0 This does not minimize your knowledge or expertise; it simply means that relative to the construction project you are involved with, your testimony is that of a fact witness and not of an expert. \u00a0(It is possible to wear both the fact witness and expert witness hat, but that depends on your subsequent role in the litigation or arbitration.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A good discussion on this premise can be found in a non-construction case,&nbsp;<em>Buzby v. Turtle Rock Community Association, Inc.<\/em>, 47 Fla. L. Weekly D99a (Fla. 2d DCA 2022), dealing with whether a lawyer was testifying as an expert regarding his own fees. The attorney thought he should be paid for his testimony because he was a professional testifying as to his own attorney\u2019s fees.&nbsp; Yet, his testimony was not actually in the form of expert testimony, but&nbsp;factual testimony&nbsp;as to his own fees. &nbsp;The appellate court held the lawyer was NOT entitled to an expert fee (being paid for this time as an expert), and this rationale can equally be extended to parties testifying on construction projects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This distinction between testimony (i) describing historical facts from personal knowledge and (ii) evaluating the work of others is not limited to doctors; it applies to attorneys as well.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Thus, the question of whether a witness testifies as an expert \u2013 and is thereby entitled to an expert fee \u2013 depends not only on the witness\u2019s credentials, but also on whether the witness actually gives expert testimony.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>***<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Like a treating physician, [the attorney] testified to facts within his personal knowledge about acts that he either took or supervised.&nbsp; Even though the acts [the attorney] described involved technical matters, [the attorney\u2019s] recollections of them \u201care facts nonetheless.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>***<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[The attorney\u2019s] decision to volunteer an opinion about his own work did not transform the nature of the deposition or his purpose of testifying.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Buzby, supra<\/em>\u00a0(internal citations omitted).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Adelstein | Florida Construction Legal Updates On a construction project, it\u2019s hard to argue that the involved parties \u2014 whether an architect, engineer, contractor, subcontractor, developer, etc. \u2014 are not\u00a0experts\u00a0in their field,\u00a0i.e., they all some scientific, technical, or specialized knowledge or skill particular to their industry.\u00a0 However, this does NOT mean when they testify&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/expert-witness-expert-testimony\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Just Because I May be an &#8220;Expert&#8221; Does Not Mean I am Giving Expert Testimony<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[9895,10334,17,136,11617],"class_list":["post-899549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expert-witness","tag-advise-consult","tag-expert-opinion","tag-expert-witness-2","tag-expert-witness-testimony","tag-fact-witness","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Just Because I May be an &quot;Expert&quot; 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