When I am scheduled to testify in court, I sometimes notify colleagues in the area and invite them to watch me with the hope that they can provide me with feedback. I’ve done this for a number of years, and have gotten feedback from a few colleagues including Jack Nadelle from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and Steve Everest from the King County Sheriff’s Office. In my testimony on a recent homicide case, Steve wrote a page of notes that included things like the percentage of time I made eye contact with the jury during my testimony, how comfortable I appeared, the way I addressed technical issues, my demeanor during direct and cross examination, etc. The feedback I’ve gotten from colleagues like Jack and Steve have helped me to do my best when presenting evidence and my opinions in court. I recommend that anyone who testifies in court have others watch them and provide feedback. A key part of any experts work is to explain evidence and opinions formed about that evidence in court – getting feedback about our testimony helps us do this better.

There is also a benefit to watching someone else provide testimony. I’ve participated in a couple of cases where I was able to watch the opposing expert witness testify. But, recently, Grant Fredericks was giving testimony in my area and he invited me to watch his testimony. I was able to see how he explains what observations he made when analyzing video evidence, how he presents that evidence, and how he answers the questions put forth to him, etc. Grant does an excellent job at explaining his opinions and the video evidence – I was able to take away some ideas to use in future cases. All expert witnesses should take the opportunity to watch other experts testify.

If you are an expert presenting evidence and opinions in court, watching others testify and getting feedback from others on your testimony are very valuable.