More than 220 matters,
42 states and D.C.
The footprint, stated from the record: expert practice since 2014, more than 220 civil rights and criminal cases across 42 states and the District of Columbia, and testimony admitted in the state courts of six states and in three federal districts. Here is the count, the spread, and where to verify both.
Attorney and law-firm inquiries only
The footprint, from the record.
Professor Gilbertson has consulted as a police practices expert since 2014. The casework now exceeds 220 civil rights and criminal matters across 42 states and the District of Columbia, with retentions from plaintiff’s counsel in civil rights cases, from the criminal defense bar, and from counsel defending officers and agencies.
Admission is the harder metric, and it is specific. Testimony has been admitted in the state courts of Washington, Oregon, Kansas, Connecticut, Florida and Illinois, and in three federal district courts:
- The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
- The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona
- The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
The related claim reads simply and carries weight under cross-examination: testimony has not been excluded at trial in any state or federal court. What that sentence claims, and what it does not, is treated carefully at what never excluded means.
The retention mix is part of the footprint. An expert who has only ever worked one side arrives with a built-in cross-examination point; this practice is retained by both, and the analysis applies the same standards whichever side sends the record.
The practice is nationwide, based in Naples, Florida, and geography does not change the terms. Depositions are taken by Zoom on the published schedule, and out-of-town trial testimony runs nationwide under the published travel terms.
What kind of casework the number contains.
A count of matters says little without the spread inside it. The casework runs across the practice areas: use of force measured under Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989), false arrest and search, police misconduct, deficient investigations, civilian and officer self-defense, and criminal defense support.
The spread matters because records rarely present one clean issue. A use-of-force file raises training and policy questions; a misconduct file raises report and evidence-handling questions; an investigation file raises questions about what was collected and what was missed. Each is read against national standards and practices, agency policy, state and federal law, and the totality of the facts and circumstances.
Engagement forms cover the same range, from first look to verdict. In practice that means:
- Preliminary case-merit evaluation before a full retention
- Consulting-only or testifying retention
- Written, supplemental and rebuttal reports
- Review of opposing experts and their disclosed opinions
- Deposition, pretrial examination and suppression-hearing testimony
- Trial testimony nationwide
Two of the busiest lanes have their own overviews: use of force casework and police misconduct casework. The full practice-area map, with the sub-issues under each, is on the practice areas overview.
Where counsel verifies the footprint.
Numbers on a website are claims, so the practice publishes where to check them. The selected results page lists published outcomes, each with its citation as filed: civil engagements that produced a recovery for the client and criminal engagements that ended in acquittal. Citations are the operative part; each matter carries the court and docket a reader can pull without taking the site’s word for anything.
A selection is not a scorecard. Matters that resolved other ways are not on the public page, which is why the page says plainly that it is not the complete casework record and offers no result as a promise of any other. Every case turns on its own facts.
For disclosure purposes, the document to rely on is the full table of cases, provided to retaining counsel on request. It includes the matters the public selection leaves out, and it is the version to use when a disclosure requires the expert’s case list. The professional history behind the casework, four uniforms across 38 years, is summarized in the biography.
Case outcomes depend on their facts. No result is promised or implied for any matter, and legal conclusions remain counsel’s: the expert addresses police practices, not the verdict.
When the question becomes a retention.
This page is reference. When a live matter needs the analysis, these are the doors.
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