How to Build a Physician Expert-Witness Fee Schedule
A useful physician expert fee schedule separates record review, conferences, reports, deposition, trial, travel, retainers, minimums, cancellation, and rush work. It should be clear enough that counsel can understand the likely billing structure before confidential work begins.
Illustrative market guidance only—not a HIVE rate or earnings promise. You choose your rates. HIVE takes no commission from your professional fees.
Core professional services
List an hourly rate for record review and consultation, commonly considered against broad guidance of $350–$700+ per hour. Explain whether research, conferences, chronology review, demonstrative review, and report drafting use the same rate.
Testimony
State deposition and trial rates separately. Broad illustrative guidance is $500–$900+ per hour for deposition and $600–$1,200+ per hour for trial, but specialty, location, scarcity, and disruption can change the appropriate amount.
Administrative terms
Explain the initial retainer, how unused funds are handled, billing increments, invoice timing, payment timing, expenses, and whether a replenishing retainer applies. Avoid ambiguity about whether a retainer is an advance against work or a separate engagement fee.
Scheduling protection
State minimum reserved time, cancellation windows, travel policy, and rush-review terms. These provisions should compensate committed professional time without becoming punitive or difficult to administer.
Sources and limits
These sources provide broad public market context. They do not establish a universal fee, a required HIVE rate, or an earnings outcome for a particular professional.
How to evaluate a matter
Review a minimum-disclosure summary first. Confirm fit, deadline, records, and conflicts. Distinguish evidence from uncertainty and decline work that requires an unsupported conclusion.
Continue the physician fee-series
- What Should a First-Time Physician Expert Charge?
- Physician Expert-Witness Retainers Explained
- Physician Expert Deposition Fees vs Trial Fees
- Cancellation Policies for Physician Experts
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