Retain Guide · For Physicians
The Medical Expert Witness Starter Kit
Everything you need to decide whether expert work fits your practice, and to start it credibly: qualification checklist, fee worksheet, CV guide, and your first deposition.
1 · Do you qualify?
No separate certification is required, despite what course sellers imply. If you check these boxes, attorneys can retain you today.
- Active license in good standing
- At least one U.S. jurisdiction, no unresolved disciplinary actions.
- Board certification
- In the specialty you'll opine on, many state statutes require it when the defendant is certified.
- 5+ years clinical experience
- Courts and juries credit physicians who actively treat what they testify about.
- Active practice
- Many states require experts to spend a majority of professional time in clinical practice or teaching.
- Clean narrative
- Be ready to explain any malpractice claims against you, they're discoverable and askable.
2 · Set your fees
Benchmarks for physicians starting out (2026, USD). You set your own rates on Retain and keep 100% of them.
| Service | Starting range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Record review | $400–$650/hr to start | Raise toward $750+ as testimony history builds. Never bill contingent on outcome, it's disqualifying. |
| Deposition | Your review rate + $100–$200 | Half-day minimum is standard and protects your clinic schedule. |
| Trial testimony | $5,000–$8,000/day | Day rate plus travel; confirm cancellation terms in writing. |
| Retainer | $2,000–$3,500 | Collected before work begins, applied against hours, replenished when exhausted. |
3 · Prepare your CV
- Lead with clinical role, board certifications, and license states, that's what verification teams and opposing counsel check first
- List procedures/conditions you actively manage; specificity is what matches you to cases
- Include teaching, publications, and committee roles, they read as authority under Daubert
- Keep a testimony list (case, year, side, depo/trial) from engagement one; you'll be required to produce it in federal cases
- Remove anything you can't defend under cross, exaggerations are career-enders in this work
4 · Your first deposition
- Answer the question asked, then stop. Silence is the examiner's tool; don't fill it.
- "I don't know" and "that's outside my specialty" are complete, credibility-building answers.
- Never guess at records, ask to see the document, take your time, then answer.
- Opposing counsel's friendliness is technique. So is their aggression. Same calm answer either way.
- Your report is your anchor: know it cold, and if something changed since, say so plainly.
Protect your reputation
Opine only within your specialty, never stretch past the records, and keep your plaintiff/defense mix balanced enough that neither side can paint you as a hired gun. Your testimony history follows you permanently, build it carefully, and it becomes your most valuable professional asset (typical range for review work: $400–$800/hr).
Ready? The application takes about ten minutes.
Free to join, anonymized until you accept a case, and you keep every dollar you bill.
Start your application© 2026 Retain · retainexpertwitness.com · General information, not legal advice. Print or save this page as a PDF for your records.