SERVICES: DAMAGE ESTIMATION | EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION | CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION | LITIGATION PREVENTION
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EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION FAQS |
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Frequently asked questions about our role as expert statistician and labor economist in employment discrimination cases: 4. Does your company routinely work for both the defense and plaintiff sides? 5. How much time do you need to review and critique the plaintiff's expert report? 6. How much time do you need to prepare an affirmative statistical analysis? 1. What credentials are necessary to serve as statistical expert in an employment discrimination case? The expert should be a Ph.D. labor economist as well as a trained statistician. A Ph.D. is essential for two reasons. First, federal courts generally require the expert to have a doctorate. And, while it may not be legally required in some state courts, it is, for all practical purposes, essential. Possession of a less-advanced degree does not ensure that the expert has had the depth of training competent expert-witness work requires. A specialization in labor economics is important because it provides the expert with the theoretical and empirical foundation necessary to design the appropriate statistical tests for employment discrimination. In other words, the combination of advanced training in both labor economics and statistics is optimal. Preferably, s/he has also taught both labor economics and statistics at the college or graduate level. 2. Are Integral Research's experts trained statisticians as well as Ph.D. economists with a specialty in labor economics? Yes. 3. Is it important for the expert to have a reputation for doing both plaintiff- and defense-side work? Definitely, yes. Working routinely for both the plaintiff- and defense-bar is the best way for an expert to protect his or her reputation as an objective analyst. On the other hand, working almost exclusively for one side or the other is the best way of creating the appearance of possible bias. |
4. Does your company work for both the defense and plaintiff side? Yes. We are able to do both types of cases without any danger of inconsistency because our methodology is based on the general economic and statistical principles accepted by professional labor economists and statisticians both inside and outside of academia. It is a methodology our experts have taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and it does not and should not vary from case to case. 5. How much time do you need to review and critique the plaintiff's expert report? That depends on the amount of work to be done. If our work is limited to a general methodological critique of plaintiff's report, we can usually complete the task within two weeks. Fully replicating plaintiff's analysis takes considerably longer. The task of confirming that the procedures described in the report are the ones actually used, that the correct population was studied, and that no programming errors have been made can be quite time consuming. Finally, preparation of an affirmative statistical analysis requires additional time. 6. How much time do you need to prepare an affirmative statistical analysis? That depends on several factors. It generally takes less time to prepare an analysis for the defense side because the defendant company usually can supply us with the data we require immediately. Even so, the analysis generally requires at least one or two months. Since,when we work on the plaintiff side, we do not have immediate access to the defendant company's human resources data base, we need more time. We must prepare data production requests and we must wait until the defendant company fully responds to them. This can significantly lengthen the time required. 7. Does Integral Research Inc. employ full-time experts or are your experts mostly academics employed at a college or university? Our expert economists and statisticians have taught labor economics and statistics at the graduate as well as the undergraduate levels. Our teaching commitments now are limited to Integral's Continuing Legal Education Program. Free of classroom or research commitments, we can accommodate your schedule rather than asking you to accommodate ours. 8. What credentials are necessary to serve as statistical expert in an employment discrimination case? Page 1 of 1 |
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