Articles Posted in Expert Witness News

Two police procedures expert witnesses with Force Science backgrounds are believed to have been influential in a jury’s recent decision to reject a murder conviction of a former transit officer accused of deliberately shooting an unarmed suspect in the back during a handcuffing scuffle.

The witnesses, Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute, and retired LAPD captain Greg Meyer, a certified Force Science Analyst, testified in detail how a combination of inadequate training and psychological stress phenomena most likely led to a tragic accident in which the officer mistakenly drew his sidearm instead of his X26 Taser while trying to restrain the struggling suspect. The prosecution had claimed the incident was one of intentional homicide by an out-of-control cop.

“This case,” Lewinski told Force Science News, “is a classic illustration of powerful forces beyond an officer’s conscious awareness that can shape a threatening encounter. These forces may not be readily evident even to unbiased witnesses, but in a matter of seconds they can change the lives of those involved forever.”

Metropolitan News-Enterprise reports a trial court erred in removing plaintiffs’ medical malpractice expert witness in a trial on the basis that defense counsel’s representation of the doctor 10 years earlier created an irreconcilable conflict of interest, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled on July 16th.

Div. Three said prophylactic removal was unnecessary where the expert waived any conflict arising out of the previous representation, so long as that waiver was unequivocal.

Orange Superior Court Commissioner Janet C. Pesak disqualified board-certified plastic surgeon John M. Shamoun from testifying against physician Mark Knight in a suit over a liposuction he performed on Laura Montgomery. Montgomery sued Knight in 2007, alleging she was injured by the procedure, and her husband, Douglas, brought a claim for loss of consortium.

Electronics expert Michael Williams testified in federal hearings that emergency alarms on board the Deepwater Horizon were disabled weeks before it exploded, killing 11 workers and spewing more than 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, is the most damning evidence yet of shoddy maintenance and compromised safety systems on board the oil rig.

Hearings conducted by a federal panel of investigators from the US Coast Guard and the department of the interior have already uncovered several incidents of apparent safety irregularities that leave both BP, the oil giant that was working the Macondo well, and Transocean, the owner of the oil rig that was operating under contract to BP, with big questions to answer.

Williams, a former Marine, managed to survive the explosion on 20 April by jumping from the burning rig. His evidence before the federal panel in Kenner, on the outskirts of New Orleans, suggested a litany of problems, from alarm systems that had been switched off to software that was so faulty the rig’s computer systems – critical for the monitoring of key safety equipment – regularly crashed.

The House leadership pulled a bill off of the floor before a vote could be taken on legislation that would add windstorm coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The bill, H.R. 1264, introduced by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., could still be taken up again at any time, but for the moment, insurance industry representatives were satisfied that the House did not pass the measure after legislators discussed it on July 22.

An insurance industry expert told NU Online News Service that it is believed the bill was pulled because Rep. Taylor did not have enough votes to secure passage. The industry representative said the bill is not likely to come up next week and could be on hold until September.

In a formal statement of administration policy, the White House said that the Multiple Peril Insurance Act-H.R. 1264-would expand the government’s role in providing windstorm coverage that is “already readily available in the private sector.”

In 7 Habits of Highly Successful Surveys, marketing experts at Vovic Corporation write:

Surveys are perhaps the most proven method for gathering data about customers in a structured way. But a number of trends have made it harder for survey authors to be successful. First, phone surveys suffered declining responses, as people thought the Do Not Call list exempted them from surveys (it doesn’t) and as households gave up landlines for cell phones (which it is against U.S. law to call in an automated fashion). Now, web survey response rates are dropping due to the rise in spam and the increasing use of smart phones to check email. A successful survey is one that is designed to meet its original goal, provides accurate data that is representative of the target population, and that improves the satisfaction level of its respondents. This whitepaper distills the seven keys to ensuring the best possible outcome for the survey author.
1. Focus on a Goal 2. Survey the Right Number of People 3. Craft Your Invitation Carefully 4. Order Questions Logically 5. Write Objective Questions 6. Shorten the Survey 7. Close the Feedback Loop

Birthing centers expert witness Susan Trezona, CNM, offers this article on her website:

Maternal Obesity Increases Risks

Mothers are considered overweight if their body-mass index, or BMI – a height-weight ratio – is between 25 and 30, and obese if their BMI is 30 or higher.

Licensed midwives expert witness Susan Trezona, CNM, offers this article on her website:

Maternal Obesity Increases Risks

By now, most of us are aware of the obesity epidemic in America. Obesity among both genders and all age groups is growing. In the early 1960s, 13% of Americans were classified as obese. By 2000, the number had skyrocketed to more than 30%. Today, almost 67 million Americans – or two-thirds of the population – are considered overweight while one in three is obese.

American Trucking Associations trucking policy experts met with three members of the National Transport Commission Australia on July 1 to discuss commonalities and challenges the trucking industry faces in each country. Representatives of both delegations talked about the need for increased infrastructure funding and the obstacles to increasing taxes. Other presentation topics included fuel economy standards and higher productivity vehicles, as well as economic indicators that track the health of the trucking industry.

The Australian visitors included NTC Chief Executive Nick Dimopoulos, Chair Greg Martin, and head of engineering and productivity Jose Arredondo. SVP of Policy and Regulatory Affairs Dave Osiecki, VP of Security and Operations Martin Rojas, VP and Environmental Counsel Glen Kedzie, Director of Highway Operations Darrin Roth, and Economist Tavio Headley represented ATA.

In JRW Healthcare Article, health insurance expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Finally, we need to establish our teaching and training hospitals as places where new physicians are trained in providing appropriate, cost-effective care. Patients could be assured that our very best in research and training universities are committed to the treatment of everyday patients, not just the rare or exceptional cases. This ‘cream of the crop’ mentality would guarantee treatment by the very best and brightest, who could provide, develop and create leading edge treatments to help serve the entire medical community.

We need to redefine the role of public research universities to helping all Americans and all physicians find just what works and what doesn’t in the treatment of common illnesses. Let our research universities be at the forefront of establishing best practices and then let them lead by developing and implementing outcome-based medicine. Every public university that teaches and trains physicians would be called upon to look at local and regional methods of treatment and work closely with the medical community at large to find ways to be much better at prevention, provide effective treatments and realize data driven outcome results. We have the finest research universities in the world. Let’s use them as a tool to train our new physicians in being the best, most cost effective, efficient physicians that they can be.

In JRW Healthcare Article, managed care expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Fourth, we need to create a national risk pool for the insurance industry. Right now insurance companies do as much as they possibly can to minimize risk and control just who they insure. Financial incentives demand that health insurance companies behave just like auto insurance companies: find good risks with no pre-existing conditions and attempt to mediate that risk. By establishing a national risk pool (the FDIC would be an example to follow) we could make the following demands from the healthcare industry; guarantee issue to anyone, make health insurance portable (job to job, state to state), eliminate life-time limits and life-time maximums, and eliminate pre-existing conditions. By this simple step we create an industry where all patients can be managed by the law of large numbers.