Wow, what a difference between consulting for a Plaintiff versus a defendant. Learned a valuable lesson, every attorney is different when it comes to hiring an impartial expert.
As a landscape, horticulture, arboriculture expert, I discovered in plaintiff cases, the attorney is looking for an expert to find flaws, defects, quantify costs etc. However, defendant attorneys are very much focused on finding an impartial expert that will support there clients position, but only upon the expert coming to those conclusions on his or her own discovery.
In forming a retainer contract for a defendant case, I mistakenly used the attorneys assumption of his clients innocence during our conversation, and used language in the scope of the contract the attorney felt could compromise my impartiality and he was correct.
It is a real challenge when speaking with attorneys to maintain impartiality while at the same time trying to assess the merits of a case and determine if my services are appropriate for the client.
Although I am a technical expert in my field, I certainly am not a contracts expert, hopefully the attorney realizes this and will still utilize my services.
Chalk it up to the legal learning curve!