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Lawyer Guys - Need Help with rate for litigation support (1 Viewer)

Baloney Sandwich

Baloney Sandwich

Footballguy
A buddy of mine is a partner at a law firm and they have a case where they need an expert witness. It involves potential wage earnings and I'm in the recruiting space which is why my buddy reached out. My buddy isn't handling the case, he just made the introduction for me. They are asking me to put together my hourly rate as they will want me to review some documentation and add some thoughts based on my knowledge. It sounds like they are not anticipating this thing going to trial so not sure how much of my time would be needed. Any thoughts on what their expectations would be regarding an hourly rate?

 
Heavily dependent on type of expert and area of the country.

I usually pay my forensic economists $375-$500 an hour.

 
Yeah, it can really be all over the place. I've been on cases where we've paid experts as high as $950/hr (a semiconductor design expert with Intel) and as low as $200/hr (a guy who was essentially the house expert for internet sweepstakes cafe software companies). Testifying experts also tend to charge more than consulting experts. Are you being asked to prepare an expert report?

I would suggest changing your thread title. When I looked at it, I thought you were asking about appropriate rates for companies that do E-discovery, not rates for a consulting expert.

 
I wouldn't focus on the higher numbers if you haven't done this before. A lot of the premium comes from paying for someone with experience serving as an expert.

A fair way to set up an hourly rate is to take your yearly take home (I assume you're paid based on placement fees, but maybe do a 3 year average or something), and then divide that by 2050 to get an hourly rate for what your services are generally worth.

 
My company does some lit support work and we ballpark hourly rates depending on where the case is located, where the lawyers and clients are, how much is at stake in the case and the experience level of the particular consultant involved. We also typically quote one rate for preparing our report and reviewing the other expert's report, and a higher rate for testimony and trial work. Our lit support work is generally going to be financial analysis and valuation. For a small case in the midwest using a younger consultant with little or no testimony experience, it might be $250/350. For a larger, complex case with a lot at stake in a larger market, it might be $400/650. If you've not done this before, one thing I would advise is to be very careful what you communicate in emails, starting today. Going forward, be mindful of everything that is going in your workfile, as it may all be produced to the other side's team for review.

 
The main forensic accountants I use are $750.00 an hour.

And don't ever ever ever assume that it isn't going to trial. Ever.

Like, ever.

 
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