LIVE: Effective Expert Testimony
March 5, 2026 | 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Pacific
March 5, 2026
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Pacific
8 Hours | 7 CEs
$375 Registration | $350 Early Registration (through February 28th) | Live Virtual Training via Zoom
Randy Otto, PhD, ABPP, presents a live virtual professional training program on Effective Expert Testimony.
This badge-earning program can be shared digitally on platforms like LinkedIn or your resume and counts towards various certificates. Enroll to earn credit and share your new digital credentials with prospective employers and colleagues. This program counts as a foundational program in the certificates:
This program should be of interest to all mental health professionals who testify in legal proceedings, regardless of their discipline (e.g., medicine, social work, psychology) or sub-specialty (e.g., criminal, personal injury, disability, guardianship/conservatorship, dependency, custody). The focus of this program is on oral communication of one’s activities and opinions. Thus, preparation of interrogatories, affidavits, and reports is not addressed.
After a review of the research examining the critical components of effective expert testimony, two tools that can be used to gauge a witness’s efficacy are introduced, discussed, and employed. Next addressed are the two primary contexts in which expert witnesses testify (depositions and trials/hearings), their similarities, and differences.
Considerable attention is devoted to nuts-and-bolts strategies that witnesses can employ on the witness stand, followed by a discussion of direct and cross-examination techniques and strategies that attorneys often employ, as well as potential responses that witnesses can use.
Throughout the program, how professional ethics, practice guidelines, and rules of evidence and procedure shape expert testimony is addressed. Considerable use is made of case examples, using excerpts from trial and deposition transcripts and video recordings of experts testifying.
Program Outline:
- Program Overview
- For mental health professionals who testify in legal proceedings across all disciplines and specialties.
- Focus on oral communication of expert opinions—not written interrogatories, affidavits, or reports.
- Foundations of Effective Testimony
- Review of research on what makes expert testimony effective.
- Introduction and use of two tools to assess witness effectiveness.
- Testimony Settings
- Overview of depositions and trials/hearings.
- Key similarities and differences in how experts testify in each context.
- Practical Strategies for the Stand
- Essential “nuts and bolts” techniques for testifying.
- How to navigate direct and cross-examination, including common attorney strategies and effective witness responses.
- Ethical and Legal Framework
- Influence of professional ethics, practice guidelines, and rules of evidence and procedure on expert testimony.
- Case-Based Learning
- Case examples using transcript excerpts and video recordings of experts testifying.
Intended Audience
This live program is intended for mental health and other allied professionals.
Experience Level
This live program is appropriate for beginner, intermediate, and advanced level clinicians.
CE / CPD Credit
APA, ASWB, CPA, NBCC: Click here for state and other regional board approvals.
Presented By
Randy Otto, PhD, ABPP
Randy K. Otto, PhD, MLS, joined the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in May 2025, where he serves as Professor and Chief of the Division of Forensic Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Otto was a member of the faculty at the Univer...
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this program you will be able to:
Describe the component and qualities of effective communication on the witness stand
Describe two tools that can be used to rate an expert witness’s efficacy
Describe key similarities and differences between testifying at depositions and trials
Describe and employ strategies for communicating one’s credibility at trial
Describe and employ strategies for communicating one’s expertise at trial
Describe common rules of evidence and how they impact the expert witness’s testimony
Describe how ethical obligations impact the expert witness’s testimony
Describe common cross-examination gambits attorneys employ and effective strategies for responding
Live Event Policy
Registration for our live events is covered for one (1) person per purchase. If you would like to purchase for a group, please contact our group training team.
Event Communications
When registering, use an email that is active and that you check regularly. We are not responsible for communications not being received; if you do not add caps@paloaltou.edu to your email safe sender list, our emails are likely to end up in your spam or junk folders.
Cancellation Policy
Have a sudden change of plans and are unable to attend live? No worries; you will be given access to the on-demand version of the program once available. Please note if you attend live, no access to the recording will be given.
Event Conduct
Professional conduct is expected during our live programs. Our goal is to make our events as interactive as possible for all participants. We reserve the right to remove any participants who are disruptive, act unprofessionally, or who we are unable to verify their purchase.
Develop a Specialty Area of Practice
Transforming mental health professionals into experts
Expert Instructors
Professional training developed and delivered by the field's leading experts
CE Credit
Earn CE credit for meaningful professional training that will elevate your practice
Convenience & Flexibility
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