Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
computer expert liked her lawyer so much,he hired her
What type of expert/attorney, ethics or code, is there that states that the expert cannot hire the same attorney as the client he is representing.
he was hired to do a discovery of electronic data for a client. approx. 1 month before he submitted his report. he decided to drop the lawyer he just hired and hired the lawyer that is representing his client. as an expert witness, can he do that? does that create some sort of conflict of professional duties? is there a CA. code or federal code that protects me from bias opinion from this expert?
what about the attorney? could she be in trouble with the bar for conflict of intrest? and what if there could be potenial bias on her part?
and the client? what if she has known this? what could that do to the credability of her statements?
and the final questions..... WHAT IF WE HAD THE SAME JUDGE AS THE EXPERT? and nothing has been said!
IS THERE A CONFLICT OF INTREST?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: computer expert liked her lawyer so much,he hired her
Generally a conflict exists only when a lawyer's representation of one client compromises her ability to represent another. The facts you have given don't suggest that handling either of these cases will interfere with the lawyer's ability to handle the other. One could argue that the expert witness is biased in favor of the original client since he wants the attorney to win (a weak argument at best) but, because the first client is already paying for the expert's opinion the expert was already biased in his favor.
If you and the expert were parties in the same case there might very well be a conflict, but I don't see one under these facts.
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