05 Sep ALTERNATIVE DATA EXPERT WITNESS TESTIMONY: TESTIFYING TRIAL CONSULTANT FOR LAW FIRMS
An alternative data expert witness testimony consultant assists law firms with testifying consultant services. It only makes sense: In today’s data-driven world, the use of such material has become increasingly common across industries—and the courtroom is no exception. A top alternative data expert witness aids in litigation by analyzing and interpreting unconventional information sources to support or refute claims. Work can be pivotal in difficult cases, especially those involving finance, technology, or market behavior.
The term refers to non-traditional information sets that are not commonly found in standard financial or business records. Examples that alternative data expert witnesses cover include satellite imagery, social media activity, credit card transactions, mobile app usage, online reviews, sensor data, and web traffic patterns. These sources tend to provide real-time or predictive insights that traditional data cannot, making them valuable in a variety of legal contexts.
In litigation, an alternative data expert witness is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and presenting these data sets in a legally sound and scientifically valid manner. Testimony can cover a wide range of issues, such as:
- Market manipulation or insider trading: Using alternative data to identify unusual trading patterns or early signals of price movement.
- Intellectual property and trade secret disputes: Analyzing digital footprints or user behavior as a alternative data expert witness advisor to trace data leaks or unauthorized usage.
- Commercial damages: Estimating lost revenue or market share by evaluating customer sentiment, traffic changes, or purchasing behavior through unconventional channels.
- Antitrust and competition cases: Using transaction or behavioral data to assess consumer impact or market concentration.
A big part of the job for any given alternative data expert witness is to validate the source and reliability of the information, ensure compliance with legal standards (such as Daubert or Frye), and translate datasets into clear, understandable insights for judges and juries. SMEs work closely with attorneys to build a compelling narrative backed by empirical evidence.
Sample types of information covered would be:
Satellite Imagery – Monitoring shipping activity, construction progress, crop health, etc.
Geolocation Data – Tracking foot traffic at retail locations via mobile devices.
Credit Card Transaction Data – Aggregated and anonymized spending behavior.
Web Scraped Data – Prices, product availability, reviews from e-commerce and travel sites.
Social Media Sentiment – Analyzing public opinion trends using platforms like Twitter, Reddit.
App Usage Data – Frequency and duration of mobile app use.
Web Traffic Data – Visits to specific websites, often from panel data or plugins.
Job Postings and Hiring Trends – From sites like LinkedIn and Indeed, to track company growth.
Shipping and Logistics Data – Import/export data, bill of lading records, cargo movement.
Point-of-Sale (POS) Data – Sales data directly from retail systems.
Consumer Panel Data – Purchase behavior from survey or app-based panels.
Weather Data – Used to forecast agricultural yields, energy demand, or retail behavior.
IoT Sensor Data – From connected devices in homes, factories, vehicles, etc.
Patent Filings and Intellectual Property Data – To track innovation activity.
News and Media Analytics – Natural language processing on articles for sentiment or trends.
Corporate Exhaust Data – Internal data shared or sold by companies (e.g., telemetry, support logs).
Crowdsourced Data – Publicly contributed data such as Waze or OpenStreetMap.
Satellite AIS Data (Ship Tracking) – To monitor maritime traffic.
Environmental & ESG Data – Emissions, resource usage, sustainability reports.
Email Receipt Data – Aggregated data on e-commerce sales based on receipts in email inboxes.
As the legal system evolves to address the digital economy, the work of alternative data expert witnesses is becoming increasingly relevant. Pros’ knack to uncover patterns hidden in unconventional information sources can provide a competitive edge in litigation, making them a crucial asset in modern legal strategy.
