I am often asked whether we serve as expert witnesses related to workplace investigation lawsuits. The lawyerly answer I give is, “It depends.” Our office, Oppenheimer Investigations Group, is dedicated to doing impartial workplace and school investigations. We are highly skilled in this niche area of the law, and we take any case that comes our way, so long as our client understands that we will do truly impartial factfinding. We have no investment in the outcome of the investigation; we call balls and strikes as we see them.
Accepting an engagement as an expert witness for a case brings a different set of challenges. In these cases, we are being hired by either the plaintiff or the defense because they believe we will be able to help their case in some way. This alignment with a “side” means we need to carefully screen prospective cases. Unlike investigations, we turn away a fair amount expert witness work since, in many instances, we are not confident that our opinions will be both relevant and helpful to that party’s point of view. The cases where we evaluate that our opinion will be helpful can be extremely gratifying.
