Do expert witnesses pay law firms an introduction fee?

[Strawberrycocktail]

I am just checking with litigation lawyers (or any expert witnesses) on here than law firms domt get some sort of introduction fee from expert witnesses they select for cases? I am just trying to check there is no incentive/encouragement given by some expert witnesses or their firms to encourage particular choices? Or alternatively do law firms sometimes mark up the rates they quote clients for expert witnesses they introduce to clients? Just checking there is no incentive for law firms to recommend one expert witness over another? I am a client having one particular expert witness pushed at me by a law firm (the most expensive by far) although not apparently more experienced/skilled than the alternatives I am considering. So I am trying to check the preference they are showing isn’t incentivised in some way! Thanks for any insights!

We certainly don't pay law firms to use us. Lawyers want to work for us because we have a good reputation. Getting a bad expert is a false economy. It's certainly not cheap to do this kind of work.

I cannot tell you what goes on in all law firms. I can only tell you that in top firms there would be no paying for work. We don't even need to as we often turn clients down.

It seems more likely that your solicitor trusts this expert and has worked well with them in the past.

Are you jointly appointing an expert with the party you are in dispute with? You might also need your own adviser to help you get the best outcome.

A relative used to do a lot of this kind of work and definitely didn’t pay an introduction fee.

Law firms contact experts and then we send over terms of service depending upon what they are asking for, costs depend on size/complexity of the case. Law firms know an experts reputation, and an expert turning away more work than they accept can charge more.

Not in my experience.

Absolutely not.

Definitely not. Our regulatory duty is to act in the best interests of our clients at all times and we could not recommend something because it was in our own interest in the way that you describe.

We get to know experts from seeing them on previous cases, the good and the bad. And the expert evidence makes or breaks the case so it's crucial to get it right.

I've recently had a case which got close to trial and the experts met to prepare a joint statement and at that point our expert 'changed his mind' and went with our opponent's expert's opinion. The amount of extra cost incurred in having to then settle so late was eye watering (Defendant). You can bet I'd never recommend that expert to a client, no matter how much cheaper their fee might be!!

Thank you all for the insight. That is reassuring except that in my case the solicitor doesnt know the expert at all, never dealt with him before, no insight to offer from her or within her practice! Therefore, I was wondering, especially as he was much more expensive. Is it normal for solicitors to carefully choose the expert then? In our case they have delegated the task to a trainee and a paralegal and they contacted a random motley collection of people who didnt reply. When I followed up with a few they said they didnt do expert reports or their specialism wasnt in the area required. Hence I sourced a list of potential experts myself for them from expert witness directories and their trainees just sent them an email for a quote. Only two could meet their tight timescales and one pulled out when timetable revised. I have sourced two others directly now myself who both can cite extensive relevant expert witness experience but solicitor doesnt seem interested and wants me to appoint the one and only expensive option they have identified as available from the list I gave them originally.

I am interested in what you say about terms of businesss. Could this affect which experts would work with a particulat law firm and possibly put up the price they ask? This expert was originally quoted to us as less than half the hourly rate we are now told he costs. I was told that was a mistake but might the revised rate be something to do with terms of business imposed by the law firm? We are funded by insurance so they may stipulate some special terms for all I know.