Journo SHOCKED At Cost Of Relatively Cheap Expert Witness

It's times like these that we remember that normal people have no conception of how expensive it is to go to trial.

It’s cute when normal people learn just how expensive a full-blown trial can get. Intellectually, everyone understands that tidy television cases wrapped up in 48 minutes are rank exaggeration — to say nothing of Judge Judy’s show trials — but when you confront someone without the scars of participating, as either party or advocate, in a full-fledged litigation they are flabbergasted at how drawn-out and meticulously detailed they are. And they are absolutely floored when you let them in on the expense.

Normies just don’t get it, man.

Like this guy, who wrote a post just shy of 1000 words marveling that Hulk Hogan would pay the outrageous expense of $350/hour for an expert witness in his ongoing sex tape lawsuit against Gawker.

Please, no one tell him how much lawyers charge!

Hulk Hogan knows a thing or two about calling in a ringer.

Thirty years ago, at the very first WrestleMania in Madison Square Garden, Hogan called on his friend (and major TV star) Mr. T to help him defeat “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff in the main event.

The word “expert” is also tricky for laypeople. He’s not a ringer, he’s a guy who’ll tell the jury about journalistic standards and opine that Gawker is a defamatory rag. Gawker could easily have someone with equally impressive credentials outlining journalistic standards who will opine that Gawker was entirely within its rights. The jury will listen to both esteemed experts and then decide the matter based on whose tie they like better. So it goes. The point is, hiring an expert for your side is an often necessary, routine component of a civil litigation. Hulk’s expert is not some sort of secret weapon. Like a running leg drop.

Now, he is calling on University of Florida journalism professor Mike Foley to try and help him tag-team Gawker into submission.

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OMG! Mankind is his expert! I wonder if mid-trial he’ll get concussed by a particularly hostile cross-examination question and revert to his Cactus Jack persona? I wouldn’t want to deal with Jack if I were Gawker, I’ll tell you that.

Oh. Wait. “Mike Foley,” not “Mick Foley.” Nevermind.

Foley said during a deposition on March 20 that he is being paid $250 per hour for his work on the case (which includes the preparation of an “expert report” about Gawker) and $350 per hour for time he spent testifying at the deposition and the eventual trial. During the deposition, which lasted a little over six hours, Foley said that he had spent about 60 hours working on the case, including 15 to 20 hours that he spent reading dozens of posts on Gawker. At $250 an hour, that means he’s already made $15,000 off the case.

Yep. That’s not at all shocking. Indeed, Foley’s rates are right in line with the national average for non-medical experts. Here’s one slice of a terrific infographic published by The Expert Institute, generated after polling over 5,000 practicing experts:

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Foley’s $250 for reviewing documents is a little on the low side, but as the article notes with a note of exasperation in its final sentence — its “kicker,” if you will:

If his testimony is not excluded, Foley will likely testify before the jury next month, at his $350 hourly rate.

Again, ho hum. It’s a just a shade over the national average in a $100 million case. Honestly, it seems like the Hulkster’s getting a bargain.

Gawker’s lawyers also asked Foley about his previous work as an expert witness. He said that he has previously consulted as an expert witness in two defamation cases, but that neither case made it to trial. Since neither case made it to trial, he has never been “qualified” by a judge as an expert in journalism or journalism ethics and he has never actually presented expert testimony to a jury.

The passage makes it sound like this is a negative for Foley. On the contrary, his credentials — as a veteran reporter and scholar in the field — stand on their own and his lack of trial experience means Foley has no conflicting opinions in other cases and it’s much harder to call him a “professional witness” whoring himself out to the highest bidder.

The fact remains that $250/hour to read Gawker articles is not some kind of wild fee structure.

I mean… most of you bill out at a way higher rate while reading Above the Law.

Hulk Hogan paying ‘journalism expert’ $350 per hour [Capital New York]
Expert Witness Fees: An Infographic [The Expert Institute]