Effective Expert Witnessing: Practices for the 21st Century

I can't do literary work for the rest of this year because I'm meditating another lawsuit and looking around for a defendant.

-Mark Twain

In most cases, the first formal notice of a lawsuit is the complaint. This is a legal document written in very general terms alleging some cause of action, i.e., the way a party has been harmed. An example might be a breach of contract in which one party did not perform agreed-upon items. Another cause of action is negligence, in which one party violated the standard of care in the fulfillment of an obligation.

Provided there are no objections to the complaint, the opposing party files an answer. In a typical answer, all claims are denied and so-called affirmative defenses are presented. An affirmative defense is a legal basis to bar a plaintiff from recovery, even if the allegations in the complaint are true. Affirmative defenses refer to legal grounds for dismissal, as opposed to factual grounds.

Common affirmative defenses are waiver, assumption of the risk, and statute of limitations. A waiver is an action by the plaintiff that results in

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