How much should I charge for my expert witness services? It’s an important question that will determine the success of your consulting practice.
You can establish competitive pricing levels in several ways. One way is to discretely conduct some research to find out what other experts are charging. Another way is to review pertinent court records, since experts have to disclose their rates as part of their Rule 26 or equivalent reports.
SEAK publishes a reference book that you might find useful in creating your rate structure. Ask for the “National Guide to Expert Witness Fees and Billing Procedures,” written by Alex Babitsky, MBA, Steven Babitsky, Esq., and James J. Mangraviti, Jr., Esq.
Now that you have a better sense of how to set your hourly rates, here are five tips to help you prepare a competitive rate card:
1. Get it in writing! Always start with a letter of engagement that clearly identifies your rates and business terms. You want to be entirely clear on how and when you will get paid.
2. Establish a minimum. Regardless of the job size, you have to set all your other work aside in order to concentrate on every new case. Consider setting a 5 or 10 hour minimum for smaller jobs. This policy will reimburse you for the value you provide to your client.
3. Ask for a retainer. You can insure payment by asking for a retainer that gets replenished as funds are drawn down over the course of your assignment.
4. Implement a cancellation fee. The vast majority of cases settle out of court, so you could easily find yourself with holes in your calendar where you once had billable hour commitments for depositions or court testimony. Your cancellation fee may vary with the degree of notice you receive. For example, perhaps there is no penalty for cancellation 10 days prior to an engagement, but a 50% fee for cancellation 48 hours in advance.
5. Review your rates. An annual rate increase is a fairly common business practice. Take a look at your rates every December and update your rate card as of January 1st of every year. As a rule of thumb, you generally have some room to increase your rates if none of your clients complains about them. Test higher rates on your new clients.
Always remember, you are paid for your knowledge and not your testimony. Price and bill accordingly.
Billing Tips for the New Expert Witness
Blog Marketing for the Expert Witness
What is a blog, you ask? Short for “Web Log,” it’s an increasingly popular way to self-publish online. You can actually syndicate your articles, making this a great way for experts to showcase their specialized knowledge.
Think of a blog as a form of an online journal, with frequent postings and observations on items of interest. Most blogs focus on a narrow subject area, which is ideal for experts. Hyperlinks to articles, websites and other blogs make this a very interactive medium that encourages audience participation.
The Pew Internet Study estimates that about 11% of Internet users – translating to 50 million people - are regular blog readers. Technorati, which claims to be the authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs, tracks almost 42 million blogs.
Lawyers are active bloggers. According to an online survey conducted by Blogads.com late last year, 6.1% of bloggers work in the legal profession. The Litigation Section of the American Bar Association discovered that the majority of section members surveyed read at least one blog regularly and almost 20% publish their own blog.
The best way to understand a blog is to look at a few. The Google Blog has a very simple appearance. By contrast, some blogs in the legal market can be very sophisticated, like E-Discovery Law offered by Preston Gates & Ellis LLP or the ERISA Blog maintained by The Law Office of B. Janell Grenier. Law Professor Blogs offers a rich network of links to law blogs maintained by legal academics.
Three reasons to start a blog
1. Blog software is frequently free or nominally priced
2. Blogs increase your search engine rankings
3. Postings get widespread distribution through syndication
If you like to write and have information to share about your area of expertise, a blog can be a great marketing tool.
Three cautions before you start blogging
Look before you leap into a blog. Launching a professional looking blog requires careful advance planning. Here are some pointers to keep in mind:
1. Create a strategic framework for the type of information you intend to publish
2. Post new content frequently to keep your blog fresh
3. Take advantage of syndication features to maximize the reach of your blog
Basically, make sure you have the time to maintain your blog with high quality and timely information. Just because you get named as an expert on a big case is no excuse to neglect or abandon your blog.
Blog publishing services
Now, let’s say you are interested and want to find out more about launching a blog. One place to start is with your website hosting service. Chances are you can link a blog to your website for a small additional monthly fee. I host with GoDaddy for example, and they offer blog software for as little as $2.99 per month.
Leading blog services include Blogger (owned by Google), TypePad and Moveable Type (both owned by Six Apart Ltd.), and WordPress. LexBlog targets the legal market with a full-service offering that includes strategic design, implementation and training.
Blog features encourage interaction
The beauty of the blog is the way it allows you to organize, archive and syndicate your articles. Here are a few features you should consider:
.Archives A calendar on the front page of your blog can link readers to articles posted on a certain date. You can also organize articles by author or alphabetically.
.Blogrolls Present your readers with a sidebar list of other blogs on related topics that you recommend.
.Email a friend Add a button to your blog for easy emailing.
News Feeds. RSS (“Really Simple Syndication”) is a blog technique that allows you to easily distribute your postings to other blogs. Interested parties can also come to your blog and quickly set up an automatic feed of your news for publication on their site. Read more about feeds at Wikipedia.
.Reader Feedback Allow your readers to comment on your blog postings to maximize audience interest. Some of the techniques used for this purpose include trackbacks, pingbacks or comment moderation.
.Permalinks Give your postings a static URL so that readers can easily share links or revisit a favorite posting.
The Internet is in a constant state of evolution, with blogs being the latest example. Have fun and happy blogging! Write us if you have any questions or comments.
Become The Go - To Expert In Your Industry
One of the easiest ways to drive prospective clients and customers to your business is to become the expert in your field. The term Expert carries credibility and prestige that can open many doors for you, and, oddly enough, the term is relatively easy to acquire. This simple three step process can help you quickly and easily set yourself up as the expert in your field.
Step 1: Determine Your Niche
Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, narrow down your focus to the things that you are really, really good at. A friend of mine set himself up as an expert at leadership training for water treatment facilities. When he told me what he was doing, I asked, “Is there any money in that?” He smiled and said, “Every city’s got one, and I’m the only leadership expert in this field in the country.” He was frequently quoted in trade journals and asked to speak at their conventions. Find your niche, and you’ll eliminate your competition.
Step 2: Write about Your Area of Expertise
After you determine your niche, begin to write articles about your area of expertise. Every single day, tens of thousands of editors, web masters, and newsletter publishers are looking doggedly for unique and information-packed articles. If you can write articles that teach readers about your industry, you will find numerous places that will quickly publish your article.
I spent ten years as a trainer before someone, out of desperation, asked me to write an article for her trade journal. A few months later, another editor saw the article and asked if she could reprint it. Before long, I began to get inquiries from companies in that industry, and a snowball effect began to occur. The more business I did in the industry, the more of an expert I became. I followed with other articles, and within a short period of time, I became a recognized expert in an industry that I had never received any formal education in.
Write a few articles, and you can become a recognized expert in any field.
Step 3: Speak as Often as You Can
When your articles begin to get published, you’ll start to receive requests to speak more often.
95% of the population has some type of nervousness about public speaking. So when you stand up and say what you want to say, the way you want to say it, you are doing what 95% of the population wish they could do. When you speak about your industry, you set yourself up as the expert on that topic. You gain instant credibility.
If you get nervous when you speak in front of a group, attend a public speaking class. It will be the best investment of your life, because the more confident you present your ideas, the more competent you will appear in front of a group.
Follow these three simple steps and you will become the recognized expert in your specific niche.