From Expert Witness to Presidential Candidate

Is expert witness work a way to hone your skills for political office? Given the state of adversarial politics in America, perhaps. At least, one of the leading Republican presidential candidates, Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, honed his presentation skills through his time on the witness stand, according to a recent New York Times article highlighting Dr. Carson's experiences as an expert witness.

Dr. Carson had already been a neurosurgery expert witness in 20 to 30 cases before he testified in the trial highlighted by the Times story, and already a best-selling author internationally known for separating twins conjoined at the head. The story elaborated on Carson's "quietly self-assured tone" as he testified for the City of Baltimore which was defending itself in a personal injury case brought by Horace Muhammad, a 48-year-old black truck driver who was tackled by a police officer and was paralyzed from the waist down.

Mr. Muhammad had been charged with assaulting his fiancée and a police officer, as well as resisting arrest, but a jury acquitted him and he sued the police and the paramedics. Dr. Carson defended the action of the paramedics. The jury found the City liable for the actions of the police officer who tackled Mr. Muhammad, but did not find that the paramedics contributed to Mr. Muhammad's injuries.

The judge and attorneys in the case credited Dr. Carson with reducing the final award to $2 million. At the time, Dr. Carson normally charged $750 per hour for record reviews and $2,500 per half day of testimony. He testified at trial he reduced his record review rate to $500 to accommodate Baltimore "… because this is a city."

In comments about Dr. Carson's performance in the court room, Allen Eaton, a lawyer for Mr. Muhammad, noted how Dr. Carson "quickly connected with the jury" and the judge in the case, Clifton J. Gordy Jr., was quoted as saying that "… it was rare to see that kind of gravitas given to an expert witness."

In all the commentaries by lawyers, judges, plaintiffs and jurors on Dr. Carson's performance as an expert witness, his medical analyses are an aside to his persuasive abilities. Perhaps being a successful expert witness is a good measure of political skill.