If I told you there’s a physician side gig that pays $500–$900/hour (with $2K+ retainers), requires no new training, and can be started immediately, would you believe me? That’s exactly what expert witness work offers.
Today, I'll be providing my candid review of the Expert Witness Startup School (EWSS) so you can decide if this path to starting expert witness work is right for you.
Quick Summary:
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If you want to skip straight to enrollment and start building your own expert witness business you can use the button below to register before enrollment closes on September 15th, 2025.
In full transparency, I do have an affiliate relationship with the Expert Witness Start Up School. That means that if you purchase the course, they give me a small payment (not from you)!
Back to the review! Here are the topics I will cover…
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1. Introduction
There are a plethora of potential side gigs for physicians to make extra money. Just like there are many roads that will lead you home. But which side gig is the right one for you? That’s the important question.
Let’s take a moment to review the most common criteria that I hear other doctors talk about when searching for an ideal side gig.
Does it make a lot of money right out of the gate?
This rules out medical surveys and consulting which take a lot of time to gain traction and receive opportunities with consistent and significant pay.
Is it related to my medical expertise or do I need to learn a whole new skill set?
And this rules out real estate investing which, while lucrative, takes a good deal of initial education with a non-correlated knowledge and skill set.
Can I get started ASAP?
What’s left? Expert witness work!
Honestly, expert witness work is the lowest hanging fruit of any physician side gig. We already have the knowledge. There is a great need. It’s highly lucrative (enough to replace your clinical income). And you can jump in right away.
So why aren’t more physicians doing expert witness work? Because no one has taught us the playbook.
This is the exact need that the Expert Witness Start Up School fills. In searching for the perfect resource to help my audience evaluate expert witness work, I took their course. My review is based on my experience as well as interviews with the course creator and other students.
2. Background: What is Expert Witness Startup School?
Creator: Dr Gretchen Green, a practicing radiologist in North Carolina with a >6 figure expert‑witness business that she bootstrapped herself.
Course Format: Online four‑week program teaching physicians how to launch and scale a medical expert‑witness practice. There are weekly Q&A’s with Gretchen as well as an active online community of physicians either working as expert witnesses or seeking to do just that. There is also a bonus module on forming your business entity.
Earning Potential: A typical range for expert witness work is of $500-900/hour and a typical retainer is $2500-3500 per case. This means that doctors can potentially earn >$100,000 per year working just 3–4 hours per week via expert witness work. This is the most high yield medical related side gig that there is.
3. Who is it For?
This course is ideal for any physician looking for a side gig that can significantly increase or even replace clinical compensation. You will ultimately need to be willing to review legal cases, consult attorneys, provide summary reports, and perhaps (although less likely) appear in court.
All medical specialties qualify as expert witnesses are needed for all types of cases. In my mind, strong attention to detail and professional communication skills are a must. However, you will also need to be willing to market yourself, which again is explicitly taught in the course.
If you are uncomfortable with legal proceedings or time‑sensitive deadlines, then this course may not be for you.
Lastly, it is a common belief that providing expert witness work can mean “betraying” fellow physicians. In fact, as the course demonstrates, it’s the opposite. Largely, you are defending physicians who provided good care but may have been sued. And, if malpractice has actually been committed, you are protecting the patient and future patients. It’s like being a professional watchdog.
4. Curriculum & Content
The 8 core modules are really where the most value is at:
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And these modules are comprehensive. I’ve taken courses where a module finishes and I end up doing my own research to fill in the gaps for an hour afterward. This is not that course. You will come out with action steps that you can take right away (and will do as homework). The expectation is that you get your first expert witness assignment by the end of the class or shortly thereafter.
5. Ease of Use & Learning Experience
The course is composed of just a few sections:
- The video library with all 9 modules,
- A Q&A vault with 100s of previous questions answered by Gretchen, organized by related module
- A search function
It’s bare bones but, if you are like me, that’s better. I hate feeling like there are 20 different tabs and hidden pages with (maybe) valuable content that I have to scour through. Just give me the core content in a simple and digestible way.
The Q&As are hosted on Zoom which most of us are familiar with and lends itself well to the Q&A format.
In terms of the content itself and learning experience, the modules are all very digestible and easy to understand. I rarely found myself rewinding back to try and understand something that I missed. Lots of clear examples to illustrate the key concepts. While I don’t exactly recommend it, you could definitely increase the playback speed to 1.5x if you wanted and still retain good comprehension. Ultimately, the pace is very manageable, especially for busy doctors like us, and there's minimal fluff.
6. Time Commitment:
Of course you could learn all of this stuff on your own and create a booming expert witness business without this course. After all, that’s exactly what Gretchen did. But, it would take you a very long time and ultimately months of build up before getting off the ground.
That is the value of a course like this. It distills the 20% you need to know to get 80% of the results.
Each module in Expert Witness Start Up School is about an hour to watch. And then homework each week may take 1-2 hours depending on the person (don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis!). So, in all, the time commitment is about 2-3 hours a week during the course. Really not bad at all and something even I managed to do at night after putting the kids to bed.
7. Support & Community:
This course does come with a good deal of support. First, you get lifetime access to the course. So you don’t need to feel like you have to ingest and comprehend everything at once. With that said, it is better to do the course live and in the timing intended for the best outcomes.
Second, there are weekly Q&A sessions on Zoom with Gretchen. These sessions were really good as Gretchen is a great coach. So, if you have specific questions or areas that need more clarity from the modules, it is simple and easy to get them answered. My suggestion: don’t be shy and ask as much as you can, this is access to an expert that is otherwise very hard to come by!
Lastly, you have an online community of other course students and instructors. So you should never have a question or issue that is not answered or resolved in less than 12 hours.
If there is any area for improvement, I would love to see some opportunities for 1:1 coaching or added ad lib with Gretchen or other veteran MD/DO expert witnesses.
8. Value & ROI:
The ROI on this course is immense. As I mentioned above, with physicians charging a typical range of $500-900/hour for expert work and a typical retainer of $2500-3500 per case, the course can pay for itself with one case. Plus it is tax deductible. Or you can use CME to pay for it (which makes your ROI infinite).
There are various intangible benefits as well like networking with attorneys, gaining knowledge of the medico‑legal arena for the benefit of your own practice, and meeting peer physicians.
9. Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Course content is concise and actionable
- Video easy to follow, can even listen like a podcast
- Not a major time commitment to get started as soon as course is done
- Having Gretchen share her stack of software used to manage her business is an incredible bonus to reduce learning curve
- Access to Gretchen’s list of attorney clients is invaluable
- Price makes this a value with super high ROI
- If you are a self starter, you will come out of this course ready to start your expert witness business
Cons
- Would love to see even more interactive 1:1 coaching elements and downloads. Are these ultimately necessary for success? No. But for those who learn best in this manner, it could be an added bonus.
10. Pricing & Enrollment:
The course carries a one-time cost of $3,997.
There is a finite enrollment that ends on September 15, 2025 at midnight ET.
From my past experience, it seems like Gretchen launches the course once a year or so. So there is a big opportunity cost to missing it when you consider the ability to get a 6-12 month jump on starting and accelerating your expert witness side gig. You can learn more and get the latest course updates here.
11. Final Verdict
I give this course a formidable 4.5/5 stars.
The most important barometer that I have for these courses is: Can someone take this course and be prepared with actionable steps to do what the course teaches right away?
The Expert Witness Start Up School easily passes this test. Ultimately, this is all that matters. What good is the best designed course if, when it ends, you can’t do what it was supposed to teach you in the first place?
Point blank: When you finish this course, you will be ready and able to find, negotiate, perform, and bill for your own expert witness work. You will have started a business with 6-7 figure income potential as a physician side gig.
Add in the clarity and comprehensiveness of the content, the community elements, the very reasonable cost, and the course is a no-brainer for any doctor looking to create a lucrative income stream that is not labor intensive. If this is you, I give this course my highest recommendations and really believe that you will benefit.
I know previous students who have made $50-100k within the first year of completing this course and used this money to become debt free, reduce their clinical workload, stop taking weekend calls, and start taking weekends off with their family.
Put simply, this course and expert witness work can significantly move the needle in your journey to financial freedom!
So, take some time to evaluate your interest in expert witness work and perform your own due diligence. I hope that sharing my personal experience with the Expert Witness Startup School as well as research and interviews with the course creator and students has helped in some small way!
12. FAQs
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