  The Fisher-matrix formalism is used routinely in the literature on
gravitational-wave detection to characterize the parameter-estimation
performance of gravitational-wave measurements, given parametrized models of
the waveforms, and assuming detector noise of known colored Gaussian
distribution. Unfortunately, the Fisher matrix can be a poor predictor of the
amount of information obtained from typical observations, especially for
waveforms with several parameters and relatively low expected signal-to-noise
ratios (SNR), or for waveforms depending weakly on one or more parameters, when
their priors are not taken into proper consideration. In this paper I discuss
these pitfalls; show how they occur, even for relatively strong signals, with a
commonly used template family for binary-inspiral waveforms; and describe
practical recipes to recognize them and cope with them.
  Specifically, I answer the following questions: (i) What is the significance
of (quasi-)singular Fisher matrices, and how must we deal with them? (ii) When
is it necessary to take into account prior probability distributions for the
source parameters? (iii) When is the signal-to-noise ratio high enough to
believe the Fisher-matrix result? In addition, I provide general expressions
for the higher-order, beyond--Fisher-matrix terms in the 1/SNR expansions for
the expected parameter accuracies.
