Do you have years of experience in a specific field? You may be able to earn $200 or more per hour as an expert witness. Experts in anything – literally anything – can earn $200 or more an hour as expert witnesses. And you may not even need to leave your house.

“Two hundred dollars an hour is the lower end of what expert witnesses charge,” says Dan Rubin, national director of business development for Round table groupan expert witness research firm. “We have experts who charge $400, $500 and $600 an hour, depending on their expertise. If you have a unique specialty, you can earn even more.

What is an expert witness?

Anyone who has watched a legal drama probably has an idea of ​​what expert witnesses do. In short, they provide lawyers and jurors with detailed background information to help them put important facts into context. This analysis often plays a central role in the sequence of events.

For example, in the movie “My Cousin Vinny”, a mechanic (played by Marisa Tomei) uses her vast knowledge of cars to explain why the tire marks at the crime scene could not have come from the defendant’s car. His testimony gives the jury reason to acquit.

Behind the scenes

Yet even though films make us aware of how expert testimony can influence a jury, most of the work of expert witnesses is done behind the scenes, long before cases go to trial.

Experts are often hired at the beginning of litigation to review records and give their opinion on what happened. These reviews can cause lawyers to drop or settle cases – or increase their monetary demands.

Thus, the vast majority of expert witness work is done at home or in a law office. This involves reviewing records, telephone consultations and writing reports. It is only in rare cases that an expert witness is called to testify during his or her pretrial depositions or in court.

How it works

Let’s say a defense attorney is working on a medical malpractice case. The case is filed because a spinal surgery went wrong and the plaintiff was left with a permanent injury. The defense lawyer wants to know if the injury is attributable to his client.

This attorney would seek other experienced spine surgeons to serve as an expert witness. The attorney would provide his expert witness with file notes describing what happened during the operation. The expert witness will verify whether normal procedures were followed, as well as any complications that arose during the procedure. The expert would then report to the attorney with an opinion on whether the doctor was at fault and why.

Assuming the expert believes the doctor was at fault, the defense attorney may choose to settle the case. If the attorney chooses to settle the dispute, he or she may retain other experts to help establish a reasonable settlement amount. In this case, the attorney would likely call on a human resources manager, who could estimate the value of the plaintiff’s lost wages. And perhaps even a financial expert, who can “discount” the salary value lost during the plaintiff’s professional life.

Honest and detailed

Of course, the lawyer and his client could also decide not to settle their dispute. In this case, he may seek another experienced surgeon to support his claim that the doctor was not at fault.

Although it may be tempting to form an opinion that agrees with that of the person who hired you, that is not what expert witnesses are supposed to do. Expert opinions must be honest and detailed. Indeed, expressing a contradictory opinion can do more harm than good. For what? Because your conflicting opinion could cause your side to choose to go to court. And if your testimony is easily challenged, your side loses. Losing in court can be a very costly mistake.

Experts in everything

Notably, although you need years of experience to serve as an expert witness, your experience can be in almost anything: stamp collecting, sports, engineering, medicine, accounting, law enforcement, media, hospitality, and more.

“You have to be truly qualified in your field,” Rubin says. “But this area could be almost anything.”

Rubin says his company has hired athletic directors to talk about athletic supervision in a personal injury case and bartenders to talk about the time they interrupted an intoxicated customer. They hired engineers to talk about patent infringement and medical professionals to talk about malpractice and wrongful death cases.

Celia Guo, vice president of expert research at Expert Instituteanother expert witness research company. says they receive requests from farmers, software developers and builders. However, the vast majority of cases they handle involve personal injury and medical malpractice. Thus, doctors, nurses and public safety specialists (for cases of slips and falls) are in much greater demand than others.

Requirements

There are only a few requirements to register as an expert witness. The most important thing is that you have many years of experience in the subject for which you choose to serve as an expert witness. And that you are a valued member of this community. If you are a law enforcement officer, for example, you want to be in good standing and not have any disciplinary action taken against you. Ideally, you might have reached a level where you train others or give lectures in your specialty area.

Rubin says it’s relatively rare for them to hire experts under 50 for this reason. Someone who has been in this role for 10 years is simply less experienced and credible than someone who is 25 years old, who has worked his way up, learned every aspect of the job, and gained industry acclaim. However, there are exceptions to this rule in rapidly evolving areas, such as social media and AI.

Guo says it’s also important to be up to date with your skills. So, you are more likely to be enlisted as an expert when you are still working or have just retired.

However, you must also be comfortable communicating verbally and in writing. And you must have the confidence and credentials to survive hostile cross-examination in a courtroom.

Pay

How much are you paid? You set your own rates. And, although expert witness finding companies may suggest “average” rates for your specialty, experts typically earn $200 or more per hour, Rubin says.

If you earn more than that in your day job, which is possible given the experience and skills that expert witnesses typically possess, Guo suggests pricing your expert witnesses at a level slightly higher than your rate normal schedule.

Expert Institute also suggests that you charge more to appear in court than to conduct case evaluations or prepare written reports. This is simply because court hearings are more difficult to schedule and attend. Case evaluations and reports can often be completed from the comfort of your home on your own time.

Frequency of concerts

How often are you likely to get expert witness work? The answer ranges from “once in a blue moon” to “regularly.” It really depends on what you do and whether your specialty plays a significant role in litigation.

Guo says the Expert Institute has some experts who get assignments every month, while others are tapped only once or twice a year. Most of the experts on their roster are contacted for a gig at least once, she adds. However, it is up to the law firm that hires them and not the Expert Institute to decide whether they will ultimately be hired.

Rubin adds that experts who have prior court experience are in higher demand than those who have never served as an expert witness before. This is simply because if you have survived previous legal challenges to your credibility, there is a good chance you will survive again. So you are a lower risk choice than an expert who has never been tested in court.

That said, some top experts simply aren’t in high demand because their specialties aren’t contentious. Round Table Group once called on an expert witness who was, for example, a veterinarian specializing in equine ophthalmology. Although this expert did an excellent job, he has yet to have another case requiring this specific skill.

Improve your chances

That said, there are several ways you can improve your chances of getting expert witness assignments.

One way is to simply register with several expert witness search companies. Three recommended by SideHusl.com are Expert Institute, Round table group And Gerson Lehrman Group. All three allow you to sign up and create a detailed profile for free. You also set your own rates and pay no commission to these sites when they find you a job. All three sites charge their clients a finder’s fee, rather than passing the cost of the match on to the expert witness. GLG also helps its experts find other types of consulting assignments.

(The only expert witness search directory we don’t recommend is JurisPro. The reason: they charge you an annual fee of almost $400 to register in their directory. Since there is no guarantee that you will get expert witness work in any given year, we think the fee is not worth paying.)

Be sure to upload your resume and detail your experience. The more search companies know about you, the more likely they are to match you with suitable opportunities.

It also helps to keep up to date with what’s happening in your field. If, for example, you are a structural engineer and know that a local real estate developer is being sued for construction defects, you can notify your expert witness search company about the lawsuit and tell them how you can help them.

“We have experts who come to us and almost do business development for us,” Rubin says. “They’ll call and say, ‘I just want to let you know that these cases have been filed and I could really bring my expertise here.’ This is a great way to do it.

Kristof is the editor-in-chief of SideHusl.coman independent website that reviews opportunities to make money in the gig economy.