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Another essay to wrap up the weekend

Experts and Amateurs
ROBERT DUCHEMIN SR
MAY 18

One of my first jury trials was a condemnation case (when the government takes someone’s property). Those are a big deal in Florida because there are only two times when we get a 12-person jury: condemnation cases and death penalty cases. (I believe that is unconstitutional, all juries should be 12 people, but that discussion is for another day.) The issue in condemnation cases is the value of the property. Therefore, the evidence is the value determined by experts. Of course, each side has their own experts and each expert has a different value. Spoiler alert: you don’t really receive truthful testimony when the evidence is from somebody who is paid lots of money to testify. Those cases are decided by which lawyer can better destroy the other lawyer’s experts.

In that case, we agreed to each present two valuation experts to the jury. The property in question was about 120 acres. The experts’ valuations varied by more than $55,000 per acre, from $15,000 to more than $70,000. I had a colossal victory but I do not think it was because we arrived at the true value.

I like to use that example to demonstrate why we should have more severe limitations on expert testimony. It undermines the integrity of the judicial system when somebody can simply buy a better expert. And some of those guys are worth every penny. They have perfected their craft so much that they can sway the jury better than a 1950s West Virginia revival preacher.

Some of the larger personal injury firms have board certified physicians on their payroll, some surgeons, who do nothing but offer expert testimony. They haven’t practiced medicine in years.

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My suspicion of experts, however, began before I was a lawyer. Long before I enrolled at Washington & Lee University, one of its most famous alumni, Christopher Chenery, got into a situation in which he could only rely on experts. It almost bankrupted him.

He couldn’t help it. He was getting long in the tooth and dementia had set in so badly that he really could not keep track of his horse farm or anything else. After his wife died, he was completely dependent on other people.

His son was president of the World Bank so he had absolutely no time to run a horse farm. That duty fell to his daughter, Penny. She took over an operation that had been looted by experts, claiming to be looking out for her father’s best interests.

Leaving her family in Denver, she spent months in Virginia listening to experts tell her what she should do with the family farm. She discovered that their only viable asset was a yet-to-be-born horse. Her father had made a deal with another horse breeder. According to the deal, instead of paying a stud fee, the other owner’s super stallion would impregnate two of Mr. Chenery’s mares. They would then flip a coin and the winner would get first choice of the babies. Every expert told Penny which foal she should pick. The other owner won the coin toss, however, and he picked that horse.

The experts then told Penny she should sell the consolation foal. Its highest value was as dog food. She ignored them. She then fired her horse trainer and hired a trainer that all of the experts told her not to hire. She did the same with her jockey.

The horse did well, but all of the experts said he would never win a major race because he did not have the stamina. At three years, however, he won enough races to qualify. Halfway through the Kentucky Derby he was in last place. 60 seconds later, he not only won the race but set a record that stands to this day, 42 years later.

When the Preakness came around that same horse started in last place and again didn’t leave that position until more than halfway through the race. Yet again he won and set a record for the Preakness. That record also stands to this day.

Before the Belmont Stakes, all of the experts said this horse did not have the stamina to win the Belmont. (It is the longest race in the Triple Crown.) Penny’s horse did something different this time, he took the lead early. He ended up setting another track record that also still stands. He also won that race by a record 31 lengths, something that is not likely to ever happen again in any Triple Crown race.

Secretariat was not just the greatest racehorse in world history. He was the greatest racehorse that defied all of the experts.

For years the most popular display in the Washington & Lee field house contained Secretariat’s royal blue and white jockey silks and other accessories. Those were the colors Christopher Chenery required on all of his racehorses to honor his alma mater.

The Chenerys crossed my mind because I was thinking about how many college students today are taught that experts are always right. In my days at W&L, students were shown the colors and then told the story so they could learn that it is much better to always question the experts.

(In full disclosure, my sisters say the moral of this story is not that we should question experts but that women’s intuition is much stronger than the greatest expert opinions.)

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Not a day goes by when I am not grateful that I was properly educated. After I broke my neck in 2007 the doctors did a phenomenal job getting me completely ambulatory with full use of everything.

Then those experts, some of the best physicians in the world, gave me the most depressing news of my life. They said I had a condition that was causing my spinal cord to deteriorate. They told me I would be a paraplegic within five years and a quadriplegic in 10 to 15 years.

That was 18 years ago next month. I am still getting around just fine. I ran three miles today. My hands still function so well that I can give other drivers a one-finger salute when I disapprove of their driving style.

Good thing I learned not to believe everything that comes out of an expert’s mouth.

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For me, it wasn’t just school that taught me to question experts. I can remember when we were kids (well, younger anyway) one of my sisters liked to say, “The Titanic was built by the greatest naval engineering experts in the world. The Ark was built by an amateur. On which one would you prefer to sail”?

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