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EFFECTIVE EXPERT EVIDENCE
A Project of CPR The Center for Public Representation has launched an innovative new initiative, Effective Expert Evidence, which is designed to assist Protection and Advocacy, legal services and other public interest lawyers. The primary purpose of the project is to facilitate successful and effective work with litigation experts, drawing upon the Center's many years of experience in litigating injunctive and damage cases with disability experts. The Center has a large number of long-standing, very positive, prfessional relationships with a wide variety of experts across the country who have agreed to work with us on this initiative. The task of conceptualizing legal claims which involve expert evidence, and efficiently developing that evidence for trial, is complex and often daunting. Many states have hired private counsel to assist in defending ADA and other disability cases brought by P&As and the Department of Justice. They have developed a strategy which combines Daubert challenges and their own team of rebuttal experts to attack the plaintiff's expert evidence. This strategy has proven to be successful for states and even defeated the Justice Department in several cases. The Center, and our own co-counsel in Rolland v. Cellucci have recently been successful in overcoming this strategy in a major institutional reform case.
The Center's new initiative builds upon the understanding and strategies that have proven successful not only in Rolland, but in a number of our other cases, including injunctive and damage cases. The Center's staff are particularly experienced in the design and execution of the implementation of court orders, relying heavily on the involvement of experts. Disability Experts in various areas include: - Community integration
- Community service systems
- Medicaid financing
- Mental health facilities
- Developmental disability facilities
- Children's mental health
- Nursing homes: specialized services and placements
- Juvenile justice facilities
- Prison mental health
- Special education
- Quality management
- Habilitation
- Supported employment
- Assistive technology
- Behavioral supports
- Medical services
- Protection from harm
- Abuse and neglect
- Incident management
- Investigations
- Restraint and seclusion
- Case management
- Admissions/discharges
- Community placement
We are available to work with attorneys in numerous capacities: - 1. As litigation strategists, conceptualizing legal claims and proof that involve expert testimony;
- 2. As litigation consultants, identifying and retaining expert teams, organizing and overseeing expert tours, and working with experts on the scope of their reports;
- 3. As associate counsel on a specific aspect of the litigation, such as defending experts at depositions;
- 4. Co-counseling cases on an ongoing basis.
Please contact Cathy Costanzo
Coordinator of Effective Expert Testimony
(413) - 586-6024
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