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As a lawyer, none of those requests are overreach. It would be malpractice to not make them.


Part of the complaint being made by Molsen is that even after two days of deposition, he's being asked to return for more, for is critique in a blog post. Is that considered normal in a case like this? If it is normal, are there some protections to keep a witness from continuously being deposed to the point that it is abuse, or is that something that one side would take up with the judge?


I'm not a lawyer, but i've been an expert witness in a few cases. Usually if you're coming back it's because they felt something was left out or they found new information elsewhere and want to ask questions around it. Usually though a second run is all about breaking you down as a witness.

I've had one time where I was called back in, it was related to new discovery that had been provided related to a security breach. It was from a third party and I had not been privy to the documents up to that point. Ultimately they had little or no bearing on the case but I did have to state I have no knowledge for a bunch of questions asked.

I think for OPs case, they're trying to find more gotchas. I would request through a lawyer to limit scope and or mitigate being harassed.

Who knows though, the amount of screwy games that lawyers play blew my mind.. until i remembered they bill hourly.


Your comment about billing hourly is extremely well taken. You’re not wrong to conclude that the billing model can contribute to overactive lawyering.

We are also trying to win (within reason) and we are often trying not to get sued or disbarred. (I guess I can’t speak for all of us, but…)

Sometimes the bills suck because of the billing model. Often the bills suck for a combination of those other reasons.

I also have noticed no one tends to shop around for the absolute least expensive lawyer for some reason. I’ll have to think more about that one…


I was probably over broad in my comment. Most of the lawyers I work with are actually reasonable and trying to solve the issue as you're implying. It's generally the larger cases / boutique firms that are pressing the numbers.

What a lot of people don't realize is that on class actions where laywers are often times lumped into one big case, most of them make peanuts if they're not the primary firms. You guys have a lot of gamble to with billing depending on your structure. So all in, I get it.


Yeah man, it’s a tough racket. Some lawyers are paid entirely on contingency. Personally I think the economics of this gig are ridiculous but I certainly don’t have a better model.


As a non-lawyer, at what point does that become abuse?

How much of my time do I have to burn for free because someone else is suing someone else, and my name came up?


It’s a lot. “Extraordinary efforts” or something like that is the test before an undue burden is met.

But like all good legal answers, the specific answer is that “it depends.”


Care to elaborate?

It's difficult to put any weight in an anonymous comment when it relies solely on credibility.


Generally in discovery a party is permitted to request anything ["reasonably calcu^H^H^H^H^H^H^H] "any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case."

So aything relevant to CA's claims against Amazon, or Amazon's defenses, is fair game. If your client is being sued for a Zillion dollars, and you don't dig up every possible way to discredit the plaintiff's key witnesses, you're not doing your job. This means asking about every possible connection between the plaintiff and the witness, their possible biases and gaps in credibility.


I'm not a lawyer and would never give legal advice.

I'm not making judgement as to what is or isn't, simply am trying to clarify what he's getting at. I imagine to Molson this feels like Amazon is trying to bury them in discovery


You're not clarifying. You're speculating.


Now you are speculating. The poster could be the same person who made the tweets


so since he's an expert witness for CA AG, can he request any kind of financial help/reimbursement from them?


Since Amazon is making the request, they pay:

Rule 26(b)(4)(E) Payment. Unless manifest injustice would result, the court must require that the party seeking discovery:

(i) pay the expert a reasonable fee for time spent in responding to discovery


Expert Witnesses are often paid eye watering sums of money


One of my professors was an expert witness on cases related to CPU cache design IP. He got paid $1000/hr. He said the opposing side would pick through every past resume he had looking for anything incorrect, and would interview his former co-workers and even neighbors I think looking for dirt on him.


You're saying that if a company is sued, it is legal malpractice to not target opposing witnesses with individual lawsuits?


Except for the fact that opposing witnesses are not being targeted with individual lawsuits.


Am I misunderstanding the thread?

> the state of California filed a complaint against Amazon. They cited me and made me a witness.

> And in response, Amazon served me with a lawsuit.


He’s misunderstanding, not you.


There's no actual evidence in this thread of Molson being served with an individual lawsuit. He appears to be subpoenaed and deposed in his capacity as a CA AG witness. Nowhere is he being sued by Amazon.


If by he you mean Molson, then you're right. He's an expert witness in the suite brought by CA against Amazon. There is no individual suite against him.




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