Timothy J. Brennan writes about what he perceives as a problem of our legal system, specifically advocacy. As I understand his concern, any ethical professional person serving as an expert witness has an inherent conflict of interest. They try as a professional to give unbiased testimony and bring to the court what they perceive to be the true facts of the case. Yet, since they are hired by one of the adversaries of the case, they are suspected of slanting their testimony. This slanting is not usually direct, that is the witness does not he or give an untruthful opinion. It occurs when the that hired the expert witness allows only certain questions to be answered, and these questions are carefully picked not only to present the client's case in the most favorable light to the jury, but also so that cross examination is unlikely to disclose the complete set of facts. Thus, these expert witnesses feel that they have not well served as professionals for needed information to make a valid judgment may not be produced for the court, and they believe that their testimony was improperly constrained. This is advocacy. Both its inherent strength and major weakness lie in cross examination, and the key rests upon the responsible attorneys. An as he or she starts cross-examination of an expert witness must know what the witness said, why they said it, and what they did not say. Thus, the key is preparation, PREPARATION, PREPARATION! Or as some litigation law yers say, you never ask a question of a witness with which you do not already know the answer! This knowledge can be obtained in various manners. Often a non-witness expert is retained to coach the and help generate questions, not only for cross-examination, but also for interrogatories that are employed as part of the early discovery process of the case. The actual expert witness has difficulty performing this service because any evidence shown to a testifying witness is discoverable by the opposition; contrariwise, this non witness expert is generating information at the request of an that is expected to be used for trial purposes, so the attorney work product