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There is no conflict of interest. Expert witnesses get called to testify by either party and it’s industry standard they get compensated for their time. That
by throwawaycities 5y ago
There is no conflict of interest.
Expert witnesses get called to testify by either party and it’s industry standard they get compensated for their time. That doesn’t create any conflict of interest, and for the University to suggest it does is basically saying they believe their own professors are so unethical they would commit the crime of perjury in exchange for a meager expert witness payment.
Also, the idea they are a expert witness for the plaintiff in a case against the government creates a conflict because they work for a public university is the opposite of a conflict of interest. Whereas there would be more of a conflict if the experts were witnesses for the defendant (ie their employer).
The University is so tone deaf they don’t realize it’s a conflict of interest for the university to prevent professors from acting as experts in cases against parties that fund the university and even worse that they back track in the face of public exposure and pressure by allowing them to testify on the condition they can’t be compensated as expert witnesses…it’s a clear attempt to punish the professors if they do testify, which they probably won’t do now since they aren’t being compensated for their time.
- endisneigh 5y ago> a meager expert witness payment To be fair expert witnesses get a few hundred an hour in compensation for preparing plus actually testifying. That being said in the grand scheme of things it's hardly a fortune, but compared to an average professor salary it's probably a decent bonus.
- nickff 5y agoMany people make a living off being expert witnesses; often medical experts, computer experts, and others with subject matter expertise.
- dylan604 5y agoThose that can't do, teach. Those that can't teach, testify? Those that can't testify, teach PE?
- dekhn 5y agoMost tenured professors can negotiate roughly one day a week doing consulting. In my field, the profs consulted for pharma and were sometimes compensated in shares. At least, before they retired on their proceeds.
- FireBeyond 5y agoI was tangentially involved in a major healthcare medical error lawsuit. The physicians being called as expert witnesses had fee schedules that were in the range of $2,000 an hour for testimony, $1,200 an hour for document review.
- sonotathrowaway 5y agoWithout googling I’m betting that political science professors make less money than physicians, especially if those experts were surgeons. If your expert testimony required billionaire expert witnesses I’d bet their hour fees would be substantially more than a surgeons.
- throwawaycities 5y agoTo be fair the median expert witness retainer is $2,000 and their fee may be a few hundred dollars per hour. So let’s say this professor was getting paid even 100% of their salary on this one case, that is pretty meager fee to act inappropriately or commit the crime of perjury…which is the context of the university claiming their is a conflict and they would only permit the professor to act as a witness against the government if they don’t receive compensation. Even a fee matching their annual salary is meager fee in context of an act that would result in sanctions and inability to ever act as a expert witness again and/or termination of their non-tenured professorship as well as the professional humiliation.
- MisterBastahrd 5y agoMeager? Most of the math professors at my university made more as expert witnesses than they did via their day jobs.
- throwawaycities 5y agoWhat university do most the math professors act as expert witnesses? Much less most act as expert witnesses and receive fees in excess of their salaries?
- MisterBastahrd 5y agoThere are tons of civil cases every day that involve insurance, and big money insurance cases almost always have mathematicians as expert witnesses.