Practical and Ethical Issues in Compensating Fact Witnesses
Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP presents a complimentary webinar, “Practical and Ethical Issues in Compensating Fact Witnesses: Are the Benefits Worth the Headache?” presented by Eric L. Broxterman. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, April 22, 2015, at 9:00 am PDT / 10:00 am MDT / 11:00 am CDT / 12:00 noon EDT.
Not only expert witnesses request payment for their time preparing for trial and their testimony, as once was the trend. Now fact witnesses with special knowledge about the case sometimes expect to be compensated as well. Although rules regarding compensation of fact witnesses have loosened over the years, such payments are not unconstrained. ABA Model Rule 3.4 (b) and the Federal Anti-Gratuity Statute provide some guidance on this topic, but have been criticized for being too vague.
In this webinar, you will learn practical advice on how to structure payments to fact witnesses, how to disclose such payments to opposing counsel, and other procedures that will not only help deflect the unavoidable appearance of impropriety associated from such payments, but will also help prevent sanctions from the court.
During the webinar, we will discuss the following:
• An overview and interpretation of rules and statutes relating to compensation of fact witnesses
• Exemplary legal opinions dealing with such compensation
• Structuring and disclosing payments
• Sanctions and other ramifications if compensation is done incorrectly
Our speaker will be Fitch Even partner Eric L. Broxterman. Eric is a litigator with extensive trial experience in patent cases. A registered patent attorney, he also counsels clients on patent prosecution, infringement/invalidity opinions, and IP transactional issues.
CLE credit has been approved for California and Illinois and is pending in Nebraska. Ethics credit is also pending in those states. Other states may award CLE credit upon attendee request. There is no fee to attend, but please note registration is required.