Know the expert risk before you take the case
Judges act as gatekeepers for expert evidence. Gatekeeper checks each matter the way they will, for the expert fight it will turn on: whether the data will support the method, whether a model can fit the theory, how the court has ruled before, and which experts will hold up. In minutes, before any expert is hired.
What a screen checks
Most of what gets an expert excluded is visible early. The screen reads the complaint or draft and the key documents, and checks five things.
Facts and data
Will the data the method needs exist? Clean trading days, transaction records, the right studies.
Theory and model fit
Can a damages or impact model measure exactly the harm alleged? The gap that sank certification in Comcast.
The court
How this court and judge have ruled on similar methods since Rule 702 was amended in 2023.
Candidate experts
Prior testimony that cuts against the planned opinion, past exclusions, opinions outside their field.
The likely attack
What the opposing expert will most likely argue, from the same agents that power our briefs.
Try a screen
Two illustrative intakes, a securities class action and a price-fixing class. Change the choices counsel makes before filing and watch the checks, the exclusion risk and the damages in scope move. The safest case is often a smaller one; the screen shows the trade.
Intake documents
Your choices before filing
Will the expert evidence hold?
Five checks, read the way the court will read them under Rule 702.
Thin trading in 4 of 11 disclosure windows; an event study may not separate those drops from noise.
Source: Daily volume, two years before and during the class periodTwo corrective disclosures coincide with earnings news; the model has to separate them, and that is where it will be attacked.
Source: Press releases and 8-Ks on the disclosure datesSince the 2023 Rule 702 amendment this district has limited event studies on confounded disclosures in 3 of 7 rulings.
Source: Rule 702 rulings in this district, illustrativeCandidate A was partly excluded on an event study in an earlier matter; the other side will lead with it.
Source: Prior rulings and testimony, from our expert libraryPrice impact: the defense expert will say earnings news, not the alleged truth, moved the stock.
Source: From the same agents that power our briefsExpert profile to look for
Financial economist with event-study testimony and no prior exclusionRanked candidates from our expert library
Comfortable separating confounded news, if the earnings days stay inThe likely centre of the fight
What it does not know yet
Internal documents and what discovery will showThe screen runs again as the record grows
The assigned judgeRulings by district until assignment
If you take the case
The record carries into Expert Agents: the likely opposing expert, their weak points and the settlement range.
When the expert falls, the case usually falls with it
An expert who carries causation, damages or class-wide impact is often the case. Excluded, that usually means dismissal, a denied class or a much smaller settlement, and a replacement expert is rarely allowed.
Who it is for
Plaintiff firms
Choose and shape cases before advancing expert costs that are lost if the expert is excluded.
Litigation funders
Screen a pipeline the same way every time, with the expert risk named and explained for the investment committee.
Defense teams
Early case assessment on service: where the plaintiffs’ expert is weakest, and what to reserve.
One record, from intake to settlement
A matter that passes the screen carries its record forward. Nothing is uploaded twice.
Gatekeeper
Expert risk, likely fight, expert profile.
Expert Agents
Anticipate the opposing expert and prepare cross.
Expert stageReport Builder
Your own expert’s report, faster and harder to exclude.
Questions firms ask
What do we upload?
A complaint or draft complaint and whatever key documents you have. The screen tells you what is missing.
How is it priced?
An annual subscription per firm or funder, with a screening allowance. Pilot terms during the programme.
Is it legal advice?
No. It is decision support for counsel and funders, who decide which cases to take and how.
Who sees our matters?
Only your team. Matters are walled, nothing is retained after the run, and nothing trains our models.
Screen your next ten matters
We are enrolling a small number of firms and funders. Bring live intake; we screen it with you and compare against your own calls.
Gatekeeper is in a pilot programme. A screen estimates expert risk from the documents available at intake; it cannot see what discovery will reveal, and it is not a prediction or guarantee for any matter. Supreme Mind does not give legal advice or act as an expert witness. See our Terms.