Choosing the Right California Real Estate Expert Witness
California is known for having some of the most complex real estate regulations in the country.
Attorneys who frequently handle real estate, property management, or landlord-tenant cases often turn to industry experts to provide expert witness testimony to strengthen their cases.
When choosing an expert, attorneys tend to focus on finding someone with real-world experience in areas such as property management, brokerage, and other aspects of real estate. But experience is only one part of the equation.
The best expert witnesses don’t rely solely on industry experience. They supplement it with specialized expert witness training and with extensive deposition and trial experience.
Without specialized training in expert witness practice, even highly experienced professionals can struggle during depositions, direct examinations, or cross-examinations.
Why Attorneys Work With California Real Estate Expert Witnesses
As legal professionals, attorneys understand the legal standards behind habitability disputes, landlord-tenant conflicts, and property management negligence claims. But proving whether a landlord, broker, or other party has actually met the accepted industry standard of care is another matter.
Attorneys need someone with actual industry experience who can break down the standard of care and determine whether or not it has been met.
That’s where a real estate expert witness becomes valuable. A strong expert witness will use their real-world experience to help the attorney understand the strengths and weaknesses of their case.
For example, an expert may be asked to evaluate whether a property manager responded appropriately to maintenance complaints or whether a landlord met their obligations under the implied warranty of habitability laws.
Ultimately, the purpose of an expert witness is to use their professional experience to deliver an objective opinion on a matter, so the judge or jury can make their ruling.
The Expert Witness’s Role Throughout Litigation
An expert witness’s role begins long before they ever step foot in a courtroom. Their role can typically be divided into several phases:
Litigation Consulting
Most real estate expert witnesses start off as litigation consultants. Attorneys bring experts in for early case evaluation. The expert is often asked to review property records, inspection reports, photographs, and lease agreements.
At this early stage, they’re simply helping the attorney understand the strengths and weaknesses of their case. In some cases, the expert’s evaluation can reveal weaknesses in the case that make pursuing a settlement the better option for their client.
Discovery & Investigation
Should the attorney and their client decide to proceed, the expert may take on a more investigative approach. They may be asked to physically inspect a property, review exhibits, and analyze industry standards. This is where experts really lean into their experience to begin developing the foundation for their opinions, which will become key to their client’s case.
Expert Reports
After completing their investigation, the expert will deliver their opinion to the attorney in a report or verbally. Their opinion will address what real estate industry standards apply to the case, and whether those standards were met. Importantly, the expert should share how they reached their opinions and what evidence supports them. Their report becomes a key tool for attorneys to use in settlement negotiations and litigation strategy.
Deposition & Trial Testimony
In California, expert witness deposition in real estate cases can begin once expert disclosures are exchanged. During their testimony, the expert witness’s priority is to make three things clear: why they are qualified to speak on the matter, what their opinion is, and how they reached their opinion. Their deposition testimony will lock in their opinions if the case proceeds to trial.
During both deposition and trial, opposing counsel will try to undermine the witness’s credibility or bait them into contradicting themselves. It’s at this point where the difference between an ”expert” and an expert witness becomes clear.
Why an Expert Witness Must Rely On More Than Experience
It’s a given that a real estate expert witness will have enough industry experience to qualify them as an expert on the case topic. But that alone isn’t enough to make them an effective expert witness.
A real estate broker serving as an expert witness may have 20 years of experience buying and selling Bay Area property, but if that expert has never been deposed or testified, they can actually do more harm than good. A skilled attorney can expose inconsistencies, challenge unsupported positions, or undermine the witness’s credibility during cross-examination.
One of the biggest risks of hiring an expert who hasn’t had expert witness training is that they can potentially volunteer unnecessary information. An opposing attorney can use strategic questioning to push beyond the opinions in the witness’s report. An inexperienced witness may speculate, contradict themselves, or even become argumentative. That immediately weakens their entire testimony.
The best real estate expert witnesses don’t just come with decades of experience. They also undergo training on how to conduct themselves during depositions and at trial. They learn to respond appropriately to cross-examination without overstepping their role or exceeding the assignment’s scope.
An effective expert witness understands their role is to establish three things: why they are qualified, what their opinions are, and how they reached those opinions or the basis for them. They know how to answer questions accurately and truthfully, most importantly, know what not to say under oath.
What Attorneys Should Look for in a California Real Estate Expert Witness
Under California Evidence Code Section 720, an expert may qualify based on their special knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education.
For attorneys evaluating potential expert witnesses, it serves as a reminder that industry experience is merely a starting point. Someone who has spent years working as a real estate broker or property inspection expert clearly has a level of industry knowledge beyond the average person.
But what sets the best expert witnesses apart is expert witness training.
Industry professionals who have completed formal expert witness training in California know how to prepare well-supported, defensible expert witness reports. They learn to anticipate and prepare for questions from opposing counsel during depositions and testimony, and to counter them.
Training is extremely important, but the real litmus test is actual deposition and trial experience. When evaluating expert witnesses, attorneys should look for those who have real experience testifying. An expert who has participated in dozens of depositions and testified in multiple trials understands how rigorous cross-examination can be. That makes them far more valuable than an expert who relies solely on industry experience.
There is one last quality attorneys should look for in an expert witness: strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex issues in plain English.
The main purpose of an expert witness is to make complex, uncommon real estate issues understandable to the trier of fact. Expert witnesses who can clearly explain their opinions and the reasoning behind them build greater credibility with judges and juries.
Edrington & Associates: Skilled California Real Estate Expert Witness
Not all expert witnesses are created equal. There is a significant difference between an expert with 30 years of experience in their field and one with the same experience, in addition to professional expert witness training and extensive deposition and trial experience.
Even the most knowledgeable industry expert can falter when their testimony is under cross-examination if they don’t have the training to withstand it. The best expert witnesses combine their industry experience with expert witness training, deposition and trial experience, and strong communication skills.
Steve Edrington, founder of Edrington & Associates, checks all these boxes and more. Steve combines nearly three decades of experience in Bay Area property management and brokerage, as well as in construction, with extensive expert witness training. Testifying more than 75 times at deposition and 18 times at trial, Steve’s experience speaks for itself.
With deep involvement in California organizations such as the East Bay Rental Housing Association, the California Apartment Association, the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Alameda County Bar Association, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association, Steve has an intimate knowledge of California housing regulations. Also, he holds the CFLC (Certified Forensic Litigation Consultant) certification from the Forensic Expert Witness Association and has taken many classes from SEAK, an expert witness training company.
If you’re looking for a highly experienced real estate expert witness in California, with a proven ability to withstand cross-examination, look no further than Steve Edrington.
To discuss how Steve’s experience can help your case, contact the team at Edrington & Associates today.