In Exoneration Using DNA Brings Change in Legal System, New York Times Solomon Moore discusses how misidentification by witnesses has led to wrongful convictions and how that is changing with DNA evidence. Lt. Kenneth A. Patenaude, criminalistics expert witness and police commander in Northampton, Mass., states “It’s become clear that…
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation plans to open its lab for a rare weekend testing to accomodate expert witnesses hired by defense attorneys in the murder case against Clint Baker. Baker is accused of beating and cutting the throat of Todd Rich in March. The small amount of blood…
Buffalo, NY, attorney Joseph J. Marusak writes: This tribute is written to acknowledge the debt Western New York owes to Erie County’s former chief medical examiner. I first met Uku as a homicide prosecutor in the late 1980s…You soon learned that if Uku did the autopsy, there would be no…
Expert witness Dr. David S. Egilman settled with Eli Lilly after leaking confidential materials on the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. Egilman, who was an pharmacology expert witness in a lawsuit against Lilly, will pay $100,000 which the company will donate to charity. Egilman admited that he supplied documents to a lawyer…
The WSJ reported recently that a few New York lawyers have raised their hourly billing rates above $1,000. IP expert witnesses in multimillion dollar cases can also command impressive hourly rates. Expert witnesses in costly patent cases can earn up to $2,000 an hour. “If you have an expert in…
San Bernardino County, CA prosecutors may file criminal charges against an attorney and an expert witness who shocked their client with a Taser when trying to show how police injured their client with the stun gun. ABCNewsOnline also writes: Police say they briefly used the Taser a few times on…
Special health courts could be the answer to our medical malpractice mess writes Mark Crane, a former USA TODAY editorial writer. Ordinary citizens aren’t usually asked to decide complex legal disputes about tax law, bankruptcy, maritime cases, etc. for good reason. Crane writes: While the principle of trial by jury…
The Marion, IN Police Department’s accident reconstruction team is made up of five officers who receive special training for the “crash team.” Officer Chris Butche says “It’s such a challenge to try to take something of little importance to an accident and to try to take that and turn it…
Murray Energy Corp., the company that co-owns the Utah coal mine where six workers are trapped, has incurred millions of dollars in fines over the last 18 months. While the safety record at Utah’s Crandall Canyon mine is good, Murray has 19 mines in five states that have not fared…
Members of the Texas state dental board can no longer act as expert witnesses for other dentists facing malpractice lawsuits without first getting permission from others on the board. Earlier this year, several former board members said they saw no ethical problems with being paid as dentistry expert witnesses for…