Litigation Support
In the role of trial consultant Dr. Wittmann becomes part of the legal team with a focus on assisting it, with education and guidance, in it's efforts to advocate for a client. The team can have a frank, open dialogue with him because, when hired as trial consultant his client-of-record is the referring attorney. Given that there is no expectation of testimony, this arrangment should help to protect the consultation file from discovery efforts by shielding it under attorney work-product privilege.
Dr. Wittmann has assisted scores of legal teams in a number of juristictions nationally as they crafted their direct and cross examinations of expert witnesses. The question modules he crafts are grounded in the psychological literature while staying focused on the primary goal of maximum persuasiveness. He has sat at many counsel tables as testimony was taken, providing suggestions, guidance, and information to assist in the moment-to-moment strategic choices that have to be made as evidence unfolds. Legal teams also often value having a testifying witness know that their utterances on the stand are being scrutinized by a professional sitting in court with on-site access to many hundreds of research articles and treatises.
Law firms often find this service offers the advantage of allowing the legal team to focus on its pressing legal tasks with the reassurance that an expert steeped in the professional literature is focusing on issues related to forensic/psychological dimensions of the case at hand.
Dr. Wittmann's guidance in the role of trial consultant has been trusted by prestigious law firms nationally both for their more "routine" matters and for their highest profile, media-intensive cases.
Menu of Litigation Support Services:
- Peer Review (Work Product Review): Analysis of forensic custody reports in advance of trial.
- Assistance with cross and direct examination development: Modules of questions for use by the legal team.
- Literature review: Research summaries related to case-relevant topics.
- In-Court Assistance: Presence at court to assist in crafting effective questions "on the fly" and with handling "curve-balls" from professional witnesses. Also appropriate when the legal team wants the witness to know that their testimony is being monitored and scrutinized.
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