In high-stakes trials, the outcome can hinge on who takes the stand as an expert witness — and one of the most experienced companies in finding and supplying those experts is headquartered in Las Vegas.
Geoffrey Radcliffe, who works for ExpertPays, described the company as, in its simplest form, a talent agency for expert witnesses who get called upon during trials, including high-profile cases such as the Lindsay Clancy trial.
While some of the most notable experts in the Clancy trial included several doctors, Radcliffe said expert testimony extends far beyond the medical field.
“Whether they’re a medical doctor, an engineer, science major, mold major, arborist, we actually had to hire a bear biologist for a case not too long ago,” Radcliffe said.
Radcliffe said expert witnesses are expected to bring more than credentials. To take on the responsibility, an expert witness must have worked in their specific industry, have a clean record, use a proven methodology and, above all, be credible.
“Someone could be the smartest person ever, but if they’re boring, if they’re sitting on a witness stand or they’re up there talking in front of a jury and the jury’s eyes are glazing over, they’re not good,” he said.
Radcliffe said experts also need to be able to take complicated information and make it understandable for a jury — and the work can pay well.
“Some of them get paid quite handsomely. I mean, we see instances where sometimes experts are asking for $10,000 a day to be able to be part of a case and part of a trial. It’s a really lucrative field if someone wants to get into it,” Radcliffe said.
Radcliffe said attorneys and companies like ExpertPays cover the cost of hiring expert witnesses, and that for some experts, the work can become a full-time career shift.
“A lot of times it becomes their full-time job. Usually on the medical side, if they’re working in clinic, they get burned out, but they have this subject matter expertise so it’s easy for them to kind of shift gears and become a new profession,” he said.
ExpertPays has a database of more than 3,500 expert witnesses. Radcliffe called it a massive industry, adding that while ExpertPays is headquartered in Las Vegas, it services almost the entire country.
