Attorney is asking me to review another surveyor's Lot Line Adjustment that is part of an ongoing settlement, not expecting problems, simply wanting due diligence before their client accepts. What is the deliverable? Can you check a survey without doing your own survey? If they are asking for an internal-purposes survey that needs neither staking nor recording, what, if anything, do I stamp, and what liabilities am I taking on?
I would think your deliverable would be an opinion letter that states what you think about the plan.?ÿ I would think you would include a review of the plan for compliance with all the regs involved.?ÿ Maybe at the high end you do some field checks to make sure monuments are there and math all checks out between them.?ÿ Write up a one or two page report on all that and get paid.
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That seems like a great question(s) for the attorney.
I agree with @bstrand that clarification on deliverables needs to be straight from the horse's mouth.
Our company has an hourly billing rate for our everyday projects, but an "expert witness" rate for depositions and trials. If the deliverables are what was theorized by @dgm-pls, may I suggest billing your "expert witness" rates instead of your hourly billing rates, if you have them.
If the deliverables are what was theorized by @dgm-pls, may I suggest billing your "expert witness" rates instead of your hourly billing rates
I'm curious as to how others handle this.?ÿ To date I've only charged my litigation support rate -- which is roughly double my normal rate -- for depositions and trial testimony.?ÿ Somehow it doesn't seem right to charge the higher rate for work that's no different from my day-to-day activity.
As far as liability goes, the general rule is that expert witnesses are shielded from liability for their opinions.?ÿ Gross negligence can still get you in trouble, but if you adhere to the standard of care in your review you won't have to worry about getting sued.
You make some great points.?ÿ If an opinion is given based on the evidence presented in a case being settled, doesn't that fall under the "expert witness" banner??ÿ If the deliverables are just to make sure the other surveyor's math is correct and that he didn't miss any previously disclosed reference documents, then I agree that the normal hourly rate should be used. This appears to be one of those "it depends" situations where additional information would be needed in order to provide a solid recommendation.?ÿ
But, for Brad Ott, anything that even smells like disharmony or confrontation (litigation), even just double-checking someone??s math, would justify double-triple-quadruple-quintuple-??rates.