Expert Witness Appraiser Depositions

If you have been deposed more than a few times you know that the deposition can go easy or it can go hard depending on the attorney that you are dealing with and what they try to accomplish.  Many attorneys just want you "on the record," they want to know what you will be like when they get you on the witness stand. 

Will you come across as a cool, collected expert witness that strengthens his opposition case or does he think you are weak in some way that he can capitalize on.  For an appraiser, you are focused on defending your report and just answering with short yes and no answers, get through it with the least amount of pain.

Some attorneys are focused on fact collection.  Get the facts and methodologies that the appraiser use nailed down and then deal with a panned out attack on the witness stand.  That approach is reasonable and it is the one most often used.  It's not an easy couple or few hours for an appraiser but it seems like easy time when compared to cross examination time during the trial.

Other attorneys look at the deposition as an opportunity to bring the appraiser down and then use the deposition as a basis for disqualification which would usually end a trial because only one side would then have an appraisal expert.  These deposition sometimes start like a typical appraisal but then they veer into the deep woods.  Other times you know where the deposition is going before you settle into you chair.

At times attorneys, as part of an appraiser intimidation, will play a game about the length of the deposition.  The advised you that it would be short, “maybe an hour or two,” but when you meet the opposing attorney they announce that “this could take all morning and part of the afternoon.”  For an appraiser you have to ask yourself “why?”  The answer is obvious, it’s not going to be a state he fact / methodology session, it’s going to be a probing, investigatory, cross-examination type deposition.

Deposition "questions" can be phrased like they are part of an attack on the appraiser.  A question like “How many times did you appraise an auto service center in the last year?  In the last 3 months?  Were the ones that you appraised in the same neighborhood?” is great for opposing counsel since the answer is likely to be small but it fails to consider the fact that there may be only a relative small number of auto service centers in the city, and appraising one every few years may be more often than any other appraiser in 500 miles.  It doesn't matter, it's all about making you sound like you are not really an expert at all, just some guy who was hired off the street. 

Then comes the hypotheticals and woe unto those appraisers who take the "I can't answer that question" tact.  "It's a simple question, Mr. Appraiser, let me ask you it again."  You had better have your "it depends" hat on because it's going to rain.  They want you to come to the conclusion that what you did was basically useless since you failed to consider some fact that was never disclosed to you.  A statement that "I appraised the subject property with the assumptions that I discussed in the appraisal report" I have found not to be a wanted or an acceptable answer.  Then there can be yelling and pounding but rarely jumping up and down, and then I have once seen the opposing attorney declare victory even though I couldn’t imagine why?  Since the case proceeded and the opposition lost I guess the opposing attorney was not as victorious as she imagined in the deposition.

So it’s important for appraisers to realize that a deposition can sometimes be a very unpleasant experience, you can start to look around the room and say to yourself “where is my attorney?”  Maybe you should have invited one to attend the appraiser burning party before you arrived.

For more appraisal information contact Glenn Rigdon, MA,MRICS, ASA a Las Vegas / Henderson Nevada appraiser via email or via his business website Horizon Village Appraisal (http://www.horizonvillageappraisal.com), or you can also click on “Contact Us” on the home page of this website. 

Article source: http://www.appraisalarticles.com/Litigation-Expert-Witness/4565-Expert-Witness-Appraiser-Depositions.html