Articles Posted in Expert Witness News

Attorneys for an anti-illegal immigration organization are challenging a Texas state law that allows illegal immigrant students to attend colleges and universities at in-state rates, saying it violates federal law. David A. Rogers, a lawyer for the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas, an organization that opposes illegal immigration, said the lawsuit filed on Monday in Harris County District Court marks the first direct court challenge of the Texas law. Texas is one of 10 states in the nation that have laws offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria, including graduating from a local high school and pledging to legalize their immigration status as soon as possible.

Education expert witness Michael A. Olivas, a University of Houston law professor who specializes in higher education and immigration issues, said that the lawsuit filed Monday was based on a flawed reading of federal statutes and the Texas residency law. “The state can, and did act properly, and the statute is constitutional,” said Olivas, who also served as an expert witness when a similar law was later challenged in Kansas.

For more, see chron.com.

National Medical Consultants represents a panel of over 1900 distinguished specialists in all areas of medicine including podiatry expert witnesses. In Medical malpractice liability reform-no easy task experts at National Medical Consultants write:

Joint and several liability

A third strategy that states frequently employ to reform their medical liability system is to modify another legal doctrine, joint and several liability, which is common to cases in which more than one person caused the harm. The joint and several liability doctrine permits holding a single defendant responsible for the entire damage versus being held responsible for the percentage of the damages that can be reasonably attributed to them.A number of states have modified this doctrine by separating joint liability from several liability, thus establishing a mechanism of proportionately assigning harm among the defendants.

National Medical Consultants represents a panel of over 1900 distinguished specialists in all areas of medicine including brain injury expert witnesses. In Medical malpractice liability reform-no easy task experts at National Medical Consultants write:

Although they are popular in the medical malpractice reform arena, damage caps are not without their critics. Opponents of damage caps, including attorneys and patient rights and safety organizations, contend that damage caps penalize the most seriously Injured patients while reducing health care providers’ accountability for negligent acts.

Modifying the collateral source rule. A second approach to medical liability reform that a number of states adopt is modifying the collateral source rule. Intact, the collateral source rule prohibits defendants from introducing information at trial or during negotiation for the purpose of off setting the damages awarded by asserting that the plaintiff may have received compensation from another source (e.g. worker’s compensation, another Insurer).

Dr. Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiologist and pharmacologist at the University Of Massachusetts Medical Center, was hired by the state of Ohio as an expert witness in litigation against the state regarding the death penalty. The state asked the anesthesiology expert witness to prepare a declaration that could be filed in court explaining that the single injection would work and would be painless and fast.

The state opted for a change after a failed attempt to execute Romell Broom with a three-drug cocktail. Although the country is watching closely, for now no other states have changed their method of lethal injection. Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia are among those who say they will continue using the three-drug method.

For more, see spotlight.vitals.com.

National Medical Consultants represents a panel of over 1900 distinguished specialists in all areas of medicine including nursing expert witnesses. In Medical malpractice liability reform-no easy task experts at National Medical Consultants write:

For example, Alaska, California, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Texas, and West Virginia laws prohibit a patient from receiving more than $250,000 for noneconomic damages. One rationale behind noneconomic damage caps is that because such damages are extremely difficult to quantify, a jury often will inflate the award to the injured patient. In turn, such awards are believed to increase the costs associated with medical malpractice insurance (eg, increased medical insurance premiums that then create increased health care costs).

Other states, including Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Virginia, have laws that apply in all injury-related cases, medical liability Included, that cap the monetary amount that an injured patient can receive for all damages, both economic (eg, lost wages) and noneconomic. Further, a number of states have adopted laws that restrict the amount of and the conditions under which monetary damages are awarded to punish the health care provider for a “wanton disregard of [patient] safety” (ie, punitive damages).

National Medical Consultants represents a panel of over 1900 distinguished specialists in all areas of medicine including neonatology expert witnesses. In Medical malpractice liability reform-no easy task experts at National Medical Consultants write:

CURRENT MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWS

This article explores some of the reform strategies that state governments have adopted, including the elements of the medical malpractice system the state legislatures intended to change. It also provides a brief discussion regarding the states in which medical malpractice reform initiatives are anticipated to continue during the 2006 state legislative session. Overall, this article explores the extreme complexity and political polarization that state legislators face in attempting to successfully achieve medical malpractice liability reform.

National Medical Consultants represents a panel of over 1900 distinguished specialists in all areas of medicine including vascular surgery expert witnesses. In Medical malpractice liability reform-no easy task experts at National Medical Consultants write:

Few people would disagree that the current state-specific medical liability systems throughout the United States are slated for significant changes to address what many have termed the “medical malpractice crisis.” Although there seems to be consensus regarding the breadth of the so-called crisis and the need for successful reform, there is little agreement regarding which methods of change will result in the most effective strategy for medical malpractice reform. The fact that more than 400 legislative bills on this topic were filed in 48 states in 2005 is indicative of the diverse, and oftentimes contentious, solutions to reform.

The numerous solutions suggested by state legislators illustrate that medical malpractice reform is a multidimensional issue that cannot be resolved with one distinct strategy. Legislators must take a number of factors into consideration when proposing medical malpractice reform strategies, making the task both complex and controversial. Among the many elements that factor into the reform strategies are economics (eg, rising health care costs, increased medical malpractice insurance premiums, jury awards in malpractice lawsuits); patient rights (eg, access to quality health care, compensation for negligent medical acts); regulatory aspects (eg, of physicians, the insurance industry, attorneys); and the affect of the proposed law on existing laws both at the state and federal levels.

techdirt.com has this to say about Jenzabar & Google metatags:

Jenzabar Finds ‘Expert Witness’ Who Will Claim Google Relies On Metatags, Despite Google Saying It Does Not

CEO of software company Jenzabar, Ling Chai, has sued the makers of a documentary about the Tiananmen Square uprising. Now, the company has gone even further. It’s found an “expert witness” who will claim that metatags do, in fact, influence Google results, even as the company itself insists they don’t. The guy in question, Frank Farance, claims in his affidavit that “metatags are used by every Web search engine to determine search results and rankings.” It’s not clear how he has expertise in this particular realm or how he knows that Google uses metatags when pretty much everyone in the space has known for years it does not and Google itself has publicly denied using metatags to rank results.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) revised its guidelines for medical negligence expert witness testimony in cases involving pediatric expert witnesses. In its policy statement, the AAP provides a definition of expert witness testimony, and provides recommendations on how pediatricians should approach their role as experts. The full release can be found here: http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;109/5/974

Trucking and transportation rules and regulations expert witness John Johnson, a Michigan Technological University professor of mechanical engineering, testified last spring before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment as part of a review of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Vehicle Technologies research and development programs.

The expert witness stated that increasing truck efficiency has a major impact because trucks make up a significant portion of America’s fuel use and will likely surpass passenger car fuel use within the next few decades. Research spending should reflect the significant role the trucking industry plays in the US economy. Manufacturers of heavy-duty trucks had sales of $16 billon in 2002, and overall, the trucking industry employs 1.4 million workers with an annual payroll of $47 billion. “Trucks account for about one-fourth of the transportation industry’s total revenues,” said Johnson.

For more, see mtu.edu.