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Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Over the past 35 years I have been asked many ridiculous questions in depositions and I generally "read the room" to decide how I will answer.

Of course, it is fair game to ask what your hourly rate is, how much you have billed to date on a case, what else you anticipate billing, how many cases on average you have received from a particular referral source, what percentage of your income is from testimony, what your plaintiff/defense mix, how many new referrals you get/ mo. , and what your general case mix is/ how you spend your professional time etc. and I always answer those questions directly.   

On the occasions where the attorney is just trying to ask obnoxious questions to change the energy or flow of the deposition "throw me off my game", "see what buttons they can push" I generally decide how much I want to fight, knowing that if I don't answer the question they can request that the judge order my response, which of course I would comply with, knowing it is extra work for them and  it is unlikely that a judge will require me to submit my tax return or a financial statement (they almost never follow through with requesting it from the court).  In 40 years, I only had one attorney ask the judge to require me to turn over tax information and the judge denied the motion.

I have been asked how much money I billed last year, how much I earned, how much my husband earned, what my husband does for a living (I doubt this particular attorney ever ask male expert witness' that), what my college GPA was, class rank in high school (I was probably 45 yo at the time), what kind of a car I drive… I would say most of these questions where asked by the same few very aggressive attorney's and I was expecting an "adversarial deposition" going in.

Sometimes depending on how the question is asked I will answer it directly so I can move on and not let the attorney "wind up", sometimes I just keep answering the question with other questions---So are you asking what I personally billed in litigation expert work, including administrative hearings? or only for depositions and testimony? Or are you asking me what I billed in consulting services, case management, administrative hearings, what I was paid as an adjunct instructor, what I was reimbursed for the state boards I serve on? Or are you asking me what percentage of my time I spend on each of these and my other professional activities.

Usually, they are only asking the question to get a rise out of you or to later use it with the jury to try to show you are a hired gun and not an impartial expert. Most of the time I have not been surprised by an overly aggressive attorney and my retaining attorney has forewarned me or I know their reputation, so I run through the scenarios with my retaining attorney, so we have a strategy.

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Thanks everyone for the good discussion.  I was interested to hear how others deal with this question.  I guess I've given about 200 or so depositions and been asked this question less than 5 times.  I decide how ornery I want to be before I decide if I want to answer it or not.  When I've declined it's not gone any further.  I continue to be in the camp that says it's fine to ask about percentage of my income derived from expert work, percentage of defense vs. plaintiff, my fee schedule, my billing to date in the particular case, etc; and that my income is not relevant, is personal, and as we used to say in Tennessee "nunya", i.e., none of your business.

Over the past 35 years I have been asked many ridiculous questions in depositions and I generally "read the room" to decide how I will answer.

Of course, it is fair game to ask what your hourly rate is, how much you have billed to date on a case, what else you anticipate billing, how many cases on average you have received from a particular referral source, what percentage of your income is from testimony, what your plaintiff/defense mix, how many new referrals you get/ mo. , and what your general case mix is/ how you spend your professional time etc. and I always answer those questions directly.   

On the occasions where the attorney is just trying to ask obnoxious questions to change the energy or flow of the deposition "throw me off my game", "see what buttons they can push" I generally decide how much I want to fight, knowing that if I don't answer the question they can request that the judge order my response, which of course I would comply with, knowing it is extra work for them and  it is unlikely that a judge will require me to submit my tax return or a financial statement (they almost never follow through with requesting it from the court).  In 40 years, I only had one attorney ask the judge to require me to turn over tax information and the judge denied the motion.

I have been asked how much money I billed last year, how much I earned, how much my husband earned, what my husband does for a living (I doubt this particular attorney ever ask male expert witness' that), what my college GPA was, class rank in high school (I was probably 45 yo at the time), what kind of a car I drive… I would say most of these questions where asked by the same few very aggressive attorney's and I was expecting an "adversarial deposition" going in.

Sometimes depending on how the question is asked I will answer it directly so I can move on and not let the attorney "wind up", sometimes I just keep answering the question with other questions---So are you asking what I personally billed in litigation expert work, including administrative hearings? or only for depositions and testimony? Or are you asking me what I billed in consulting services, case management, administrative hearings, what I was paid as an adjunct instructor, what I was reimbursed for the state boards I serve on? Or are you asking me what percentage of my time I spend on each of these and my other professional activities.

Usually, they are only asking the question to get a rise out of you or to later use it with the jury to try to show you are a hired gun and not an impartial expert. Most of the time I have not been surprised by an overly aggressive attorney and my retaining attorney has forewarned me or I know their reputation, so I run through the scenarios with my retaining attorney, so we have a strategy.

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Thanks everyone for the good discussion.  I was interested to hear how others deal with this question.  I guess I've given about 200 or so depositions and been asked this question less than 5 times.  I decide how ornery I want to be before I decide if I want to answer it or not.  When I've declined it's not gone any further.  I continue to be in the camp that says it's fine to ask about percentage of my income derived from expert work, percentage of defense vs. plaintiff, my fee schedule, my billing to date in the particular case, etc; and that my income is not relevant, is personal, and as we used to say in Tennessee "nunya", i.e., none of your business.

Over the past 35 years I have been asked many ridiculous questions in depositions and I generally "read the room" to decide how I will answer.

Of course, it is fair game to ask what your hourly rate is, how much you have billed to date on a case, what else you anticipate billing, how many cases on average you have received from a particular referral source, what percentage of your income is from testimony, what your plaintiff/defense mix, how many new referrals you get/ mo. , and what your general case mix is/ how you spend your professional time etc. and I always answer those questions directly.   

On the occasions where the attorney is just trying to ask obnoxious questions to change the energy or flow of the deposition "throw me off my game", "see what buttons they can push" I generally decide how much I want to fight, knowing that if I don't answer the question they can request that the judge order my response, which of course I would comply with, knowing it is extra work for them and  it is unlikely that a judge will require me to submit my tax return or a financial statement (they almost never follow through with requesting it from the court).  In 40 years, I only had one attorney ask the judge to require me to turn over tax information and the judge denied the motion.

I have been asked how much money I billed last year, how much I earned, how much my husband earned, what my husband does for a living (I doubt this particular attorney ever ask male expert witness' that), what my college GPA was, class rank in high school (I was probably 45 yo at the time), what kind of a car I drive… I would say most of these questions where asked by the same few very aggressive attorney's and I was expecting an "adversarial deposition" going in.

Sometimes depending on how the question is asked I will answer it directly so I can move on and not let the attorney "wind up", sometimes I just keep answering the question with other questions---So are you asking what I personally billed in litigation expert work, including administrative hearings? or only for depositions and testimony? Or are you asking me what I billed in consulting services, case management, administrative hearings, what I was paid as an adjunct instructor, what I was reimbursed for the state boards I serve on? Or are you asking me what percentage of my time I spend on each of these and my other professional activities.

Usually, they are only asking the question to get a rise out of you or to later use it with the jury to try to show you are a hired gun and not an impartial expert. Most of the time I have not been surprised by an overly aggressive attorney and my retaining attorney has forewarned me or I know their reputation, so I run through the scenarios with my retaining attorney, so we have a strategy.

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

If pressed further than my comfort zone, as expressed in multiple facets by others already, I also turn to the "labor" costs involved in responding in numerical amounts or ranges.  Hence, my response is to inform that I- as this is not part of my standard professional duties, nor Scope of Practice- would prepare an invoice- to be paid by the requestor, and in advance of my reply.   This amount would be used to pay for the time it takes to tabulate an answer the question.  This may be applied with or without a judge's potential involvement.   Great question and discussion, Mike!

Thanks everyone for the good discussion.  I was interested to hear how others deal with this question.  I guess I've given about 200 or so depositions and been asked this question less than 5 times.  I decide how ornery I want to be before I decide if I want to answer it or not.  When I've declined it's not gone any further.  I continue to be in the camp that says it's fine to ask about percentage of my income derived from expert work, percentage of defense vs. plaintiff, my fee schedule, my billing to date in the particular case, etc; and that my income is not relevant, is personal, and as we used to say in Tennessee "nunya", i.e., none of your business.

Over the past 35 years I have been asked many ridiculous questions in depositions and I generally "read the room" to decide how I will answer.

Of course, it is fair game to ask what your hourly rate is, how much you have billed to date on a case, what else you anticipate billing, how many cases on average you have received from a particular referral source, what percentage of your income is from testimony, what your plaintiff/defense mix, how many new referrals you get/ mo. , and what your general case mix is/ how you spend your professional time etc. and I always answer those questions directly.   

On the occasions where the attorney is just trying to ask obnoxious questions to change the energy or flow of the deposition "throw me off my game", "see what buttons they can push" I generally decide how much I want to fight, knowing that if I don't answer the question they can request that the judge order my response, which of course I would comply with, knowing it is extra work for them and  it is unlikely that a judge will require me to submit my tax return or a financial statement (they almost never follow through with requesting it from the court).  In 40 years, I only had one attorney ask the judge to require me to turn over tax information and the judge denied the motion.

I have been asked how much money I billed last year, how much I earned, how much my husband earned, what my husband does for a living (I doubt this particular attorney ever ask male expert witness' that), what my college GPA was, class rank in high school (I was probably 45 yo at the time), what kind of a car I drive… I would say most of these questions where asked by the same few very aggressive attorney's and I was expecting an "adversarial deposition" going in.

Sometimes depending on how the question is asked I will answer it directly so I can move on and not let the attorney "wind up", sometimes I just keep answering the question with other questions---So are you asking what I personally billed in litigation expert work, including administrative hearings? or only for depositions and testimony? Or are you asking me what I billed in consulting services, case management, administrative hearings, what I was paid as an adjunct instructor, what I was reimbursed for the state boards I serve on? Or are you asking me what percentage of my time I spend on each of these and my other professional activities.

Usually, they are only asking the question to get a rise out of you or to later use it with the jury to try to show you are a hired gun and not an impartial expert. Most of the time I have not been surprised by an overly aggressive attorney and my retaining attorney has forewarned me or I know their reputation, so I run through the scenarios with my retaining attorney, so we have a strategy.

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

------------------------------
Mike McCord
mike@mccordrehab.com
Atlanta, GA United States
------------------------------

My mentor said this once about being asked such a question - that it is not a Rule 702 disclosure requirement of an expert.

So that's how I have been answering it all until about 3 years ago when in a New Mexico case the judge ordered it of all experts and in writing. My answer was to say that ever since 2012, my income from expert witness work has been above $$$ a year (and I picked my 2012 income). It was an amount that would make income from any one law firm look small. 

------------------------------
J. Matthew Sims, MC, MS
Vocational Economist
sims@simsandwhite.com
Flagstaff, AZ United States
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2025 12:28
From: Mike McCord
Subject: Deposition questions re Expert Income

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

------------------------------
Mike McCord
mike@mccordrehab.com
Atlanta, GA United States
------------------------------

My mentor said this once about being asked such a question - that it is not a Rule 702 disclosure requirement of an expert.

So that's how I have been answering it all until about 3 years ago when in a New Mexico case the judge ordered it of all experts and in writing. My answer was to say that ever since 2012, my income from expert witness work has been above $$$ a year (and I picked my 2012 income). It was an amount that would make income from any one law firm look small. 

------------------------------
J. Matthew Sims, MC, MS
Vocational Economist
sims@simsandwhite.com
Flagstaff, AZ United States

Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2025 12:28
From: Mike McCord
Subject: Deposition questions re Expert Income

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

------------------------------
Mike McCord
mike@mccordrehab.com
Atlanta, GA United States
------------------------------

The attorney is an advocate, and his/her income has no relevance to this question. Over all the years I was only asked the question a few times. Hunch: Attorneys who know of the expert and look into expert's background/bent don't tend to ask it. I answered the rare question by saying "I do not know" (since I didn't) and that researching it would require X hours of time at $$ rate. paid in advance. No takers. I also explained that it would be complex in that I owned a corporation which had employees, one of whom is me, and that those employees and I each did VR casework, other counseling, and that I and some of the other corporation employees also did various types of VE forensics. VEs and probably any type of expert should seek to balance their cases for an approximate balance in terms of plaintiff and  defense work and continue to do casework or whatever core work of that profession concurrently with forensics. the question will come up less.

My mentor said this once about being asked such a question - that it is not a Rule 702 disclosure requirement of an expert.

So that's how I have been answering it all until about 3 years ago when in a New Mexico case the judge ordered it of all experts and in writing. My answer was to say that ever since 2012, my income from expert witness work has been above $$$ a year (and I picked my 2012 income). It was an amount that would make income from any one law firm look small. 

------------------------------
J. Matthew Sims, MC, MS
Vocational Economist
sims@simsandwhite.com
Flagstaff, AZ United States

Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2025 12:28
From: Mike McCord
Subject: Deposition questions re Expert Income

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

------------------------------
Mike McCord
mike@mccordrehab.com
Atlanta, GA United States
------------------------------

The attorney is an advocate, and his/her income has no relevance to this question. Over all the years I was only asked the question a few times. Hunch: Attorneys who know of the expert and look into expert's background/bent don't tend to ask it. I answered the rare question by saying "I do not know" (since I didn't) and that researching it would require X hours of time at $$ rate. paid in advance. No takers. I also explained that it would be complex in that I owned a corporation which had employees, one of whom is me, and that those employees and I each did VR casework, other counseling, and that I and some of the other corporation employees also did various types of VE forensics. VEs and probably any type of expert should seek to balance their cases for an approximate balance in terms of plaintiff and  defense work and continue to do casework or whatever core work of that profession concurrently with forensics. the question will come up less.

My mentor said this once about being asked such a question - that it is not a Rule 702 disclosure requirement of an expert.

So that's how I have been answering it all until about 3 years ago when in a New Mexico case the judge ordered it of all experts and in writing. My answer was to say that ever since 2012, my income from expert witness work has been above $$$ a year (and I picked my 2012 income). It was an amount that would make income from any one law firm look small. 

------------------------------
J. Matthew Sims, MC, MS
Vocational Economist
sims@simsandwhite.com
Flagstaff, AZ United States

Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2025 12:28
From: Mike McCord
Subject: Deposition questions re Expert Income

Hi all,

I am anticipating a question or two in an upcoming deposition regarding my total income from my expert work; this particular attorney seems to ask it of all the deposed experts.  I find myself resistant to answering this, and wonder how others have handled this.  Certainly questions regarding the percentage of our income from expert work and breakdown of defense vs. plaintiff work are standard, but I rarely have someone ask my annual income.  Thoughts?

Thanks and happy new year.

Mike

------------------------------
Mike McCord
mike@mccordrehab.com
Atlanta, GA United States
------------------------------