The Virtual Chase offers this Robert Ambrogi article on vetting your expert. The best part is, many of the sources Ambrogi recommends are free, so legal secretaries can easily do this research for their lawyers while mostly avoiding administrative red tape. The Web offers all kinds of nifty background checking tools that go beyond simply typing a name into Google. You can search for bulletin board and newsgroup postings, find transcripts of podcasts, and scope out networking sites. Don’t forget, too, that lots of public records are free, if you know where to look.

The Virtual Chase: How to Vet an Expert