If you are trying your case in Texas or Midwestern states you have special needs in selecting an attorney fee expert.

Lawfirm organization service: AZ, CO, IA, IN, KS, MI, MN, MS, MT, NE, NM, ND, OK, SD,TX, UT, WY. Here's why.

In Texas you need a Texas licensed attorney like Bucklin as your fee expert. Texas. In a jury tried case in the state courts of Texas, the jury is the decider of fact on the amount of the reasonable attorney fee. The trial jury even decides the "total reasonable attorney fee" for any future work if the case is appealed!

Evaluating the legal work done in Texas. The major problem for an expert who is not a Texas attorney is that he/she simply does not know the multiple special procedures and peculiarities of Texas law - and it will show up in cross-examination. Hence, it is difficult for the jury to believe that the out of state fee expert really knows what a Texas attorney reasonably would do..

Although the need for a Texas-licensed attorney as a fee expert is not as great in Federal Courts, where federal law prevails and the judge decides the amount of the reasonable attorney fee, the judge comes from the Texas culture, which prides itself that Texas entered the Union by treaty, and Texas is a special place with special customs and ways of working.

Whichever side you are on, prosecuting or defending a claim for attorney fees, you may well conclude that you need a Texas licensed attorney with a national reputation to be your fee expert. Read about Bucklin.

Evaluating the rate per hour for work done in Texas. Whether judge or jury, it is difficult for the decider of fact to believe that a non-Texas attorney knows what is the market or reasonable rate per hour for the attorney work done in Texas. Texas is so big with so many in the bar association, that it really is a separate legal market for attorney work, and it has distinct geographical areas with different legal markets.

Lawfirm organization service: AZ, CO, IA, IN, KS, MI, MN, MS, MT, NE, NM, ND, OK, SD,TX, UT, WY. The other core Midwestern states (blue and green states in the diagram on the left). Judges in these Midwestern state normally are the deciders of fact on the amount of reasonable attorney fees. They come from a culture that long has believed that "Easterners don't really understand what sensible lawyers like us do here" and "California is far-out-different, and not rooted in sensible work habits." So again, it is wise for you to have an attorney fee expert who has both a national reputation but also solid Midwest credentials, and experience relating to the judges and jurors of those Midwestern states. Read about Bucklin.

Bucklin expresses his expert opinion, and explains the basis of it, in words that communicate to the finder of fact.

Bucklin has over 40 years of effective presentation of evidence in the courts of the Midwest, from Minnesota south to Texas.. This is evidenced by his election as a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers (The Academy of Trial Lawyers attempts to identify and admit to membership the top 500 trial lawyers in the United States); by his membership in the Million Dollar Round Table; and by the multiple insurers who recommended him for Best's Recommended Insurance Attorneys.

Bucklin's methodology has the capability to pass the judge's gatekeeper tests. (In some courts of this Midwestern area, they use the Daubert tests, in Texas state courts they use the Robertson tests, in states like North Dakota, they have deliberately elected to use the Frye tests.

Attorneys must select an expert who is familiar with the new expert opinion evidence tests, and able to support his/her analytical approaches in the words that the court is looking for. In the federal Kumho case, for example, the court had no doubt about the expert's qualifications, but rejected the testimony because of lack of explanation of a proper analytical approach. An expert is no use in court if he/she cannot pass the gatekeeper tests of the judge. Read Bucklin's article --> Daubert Gatekeeping Tests.

Gone are the days when, after an expert is found to have the credentials to testify (routine under Rule 702's standards), the testimony would invariably get to the jury. Now trial lawyers must look beyond the expert’s credentials. So choose an expert who knows how to state his/her method properly and clearly.