You know the case. Your report is solid. Then in your deposition, opposing counsel leans forward and asks, “Isn’t it true that…?” and everything you know must come out clearly, calmly, and in the right order.
Your client retained you because of your clinical expertise. How you hold up under questioning is part of what decides the case’s outcome. Roughly 90% of cases resolve before trial, often because of what happens at deposition.
What’s at Stake for You
Opposing counsel reads every expert deposition transcript looking for weak spots. An inexperienced expert hands them plenty:
- volunteering information no one asked for,
- agreeing to a leading question that doesn’t fit the facts,
- drifting outside her assigned role,
- or getting flustered when a discrepancy surfaces.
Every one of those answers is in the transcript, and the transcript follows you.
The damage caused by a weak deposition affects the case first. A shaky deposition can lower the settlement value, invite a motion to exclude your testimony, or push your retaining attorney to settle for less.
Then it hits you. Attorneys talk to each other. A firm that watched you struggle is unlikely to call again, and the next opposing counsel who sees your name may order your old transcript.
Your report can be excellent, but if your testimony falls apart, that is what attorneys remember.
Here’s the hard part: attorneys assume you already know how to testify. They hire you for your clinical judgment, and preparation time before a deposition is often brief.
No one plans to teach you how to handle a multipart question or a forced yes/no demand. You’re expected to walk in knowing how to handle difficult questions.
A Safe Place to Practice
This intensive gives you a place to build those skills before your next deposition or trial, not during it.
You’ll answer questions from a nurse attorney playing opposing counsel, stumble in front of supportive colleagues instead of a court reporter and get specific feedback on what to change. Nothing you say becomes part of a record.
It’s a full day on the part of expert witness work you can’t learn from reading alone: excelling during depositions and trials.
Who This Is For
Legal nurse consultants who testify, or plan to testify, as liability experts, damages or expert fact experts, or life care planners.
This is a testimony-skills day, not an introduction to expert work. We assume you already understand expert roles and how cases come to you.
What We’ll Cover
Staying in your lane.
Your assigned role, Federal Rule of Evidence 702, and why Daubert and Frye challenges happen, explained by a nurse attorney.
The deposition.
Preparing with your retaining attorney: what to bring, answering fully without volunteering, handling rapid-fire and repeated questions, and protecting your right to review the transcript.
Trial preparation and courtroom conduct.
Organizing your file, knowing your CV cold, voir dire, explaining clinical concepts to a jury in plain language, and etiquette mistakes that can trigger a mistrial.
Cross-examination tactics and countermeasures.
Handling leading and multipart questions, hypotheticals, forced yes/no demands, the missing-document trap, and the overly friendly attorney.
Composure and body language.
Spotting your own nervous signs, handling long pauses, and staying non-defensive when discrepancies come up. You’ll get hands-on practice.
Live mock cross-examination.
A session where a nurse attorney plays opposing counsel and volunteers take the hot seat, followed by structured feedback.
You’ll work from one mock medical malpractice case all day, with records sent before the program, so every exercise builds on the same file.
You’ll Leave With
- A cross-examination tactics cheat sheet
- A deposition vs. trial comparison chart
- A courtroom attire checklist,
- A “phrases that work” reference
- Digital copies of Pat Iyer, How to Be a Successful Nursing Expert Witness, Second Edition
- Arlene Klepatsky’s chapter, “Vetting the Opposing Expert: The Essentials”, from Pat Iyer (Ed.) Medical Record Analysis, Volume 2.
Intensive details
Your Instructors
Pat Iyer, MSN, RN, LNCC testified as an expert witness for 25 years, as a liability expert and an FRE 1006 expert. She founded her independent LNC business in 1989, recruited and trained hundreds of healthcare expert witnesses, and has written 74 books.
Arlene Klepatsky, JD, MSN, PHN, RN, Esq. is a nurse attorney with experience in civil and criminal law and in vetting expert witnesses. She holds a certificate in forensic nursing and co-developed and taught for nearly 10 years in an ABA-approved, university-based LNC program.
Investment
Early bird: $397
through January 11, 2027.
Regular price: $497.
Six instructional hours, with lunch and two breaks.