Articles Posted in Expert Witness News

In Air Rage, aviation expert witness Capt. Bob Norris writes:

The significant increase in load factors experienced over the last 10 years have given rise to considerable overcrowding, which for some individuals causes aggression, and deep frustration, and a propensity toward air rage. Most airlines have cut back on amenities like meals, boarding passes, and even leg room, so people who normally never cause a problem may feel compelled to lash out in frustration. As I fly as a coach passenger in the B-757 I feel like I am in a cattle car, wedged in the middle seat between two larger than normal size individuals, unable to move. When the person in the seat in front of me slams back their seat to recline, I am jammed in the gut by my computer. Standing in line with only three blue-rooms, unable to pass in the aisle when the food carts are in use is enough to cause frustration too most passengers. As the airlines try and fill all seats, the crowding conditions will continue and only exacerbate the already unacceptable situation.

The airlines deport thousands of illegal immigrants each year. Many are a high risk because they have been indicated for criminal acts and not escorted by armed INS agents. These individuals are being sent back against their will and none to happy about it. On a flight from Los Angeles to El Salvador two-dozen criminal immigrants were on board, just out of jail. Several stole liquor from the service cart and became drunk; a 12-year-old girl was inappropriately touched by one of the men. Additionally, some of these deportees have contagious diseases that are common to their areas and can affect other passengers.

In Successfully Locating A Business, zoning and land use expert witness John J. Wallace writes on a retailer’s biggest challenge:

California’s innovative shopping centers are home to many retailing firsts — and today they are home to many first-time retailers. This new breed of store owner tends to be strong on operations, such as merchandising and service, and weak on business experience. Thus, they often run afoul of retail fundamentals — particularly site selection.

Locating a retail store in today’s centers has become more subtle and complex, but it remains the single most important factor in a merchant’s success. Even for established and successful retail chains, location typically accounts for more than 90 percent of the variation in performance among outlets.

In Dram Shop Laws – Improving Public Safety, dram shop expert witness Maj. Mark Willingham of Alcohol Solutions, LLC, writes:

The business model under which the alcoholic beverage industry operates can be antithetical to the elements of responsible retailing. In many cases tips; a significant part of servers’ income, come from “good service” which often equates to heavy pours of alcohol, frequent replenishment, and a wink and a nod at increasing intoxication levels. Beverage retailers often utilize questionable promotions, two for one or all you can drink specials, for example, to gain a competitive advantage or to maintain marketing parity with other retailers. The choices bar owners and bartenders make in over-serving their guests often eliminate the choices their guests might have in moderating their drinking behavior.

No one will argue that the impaired driver in an alcohol related crash is blameless. The decision to have the first, second or perhaps the third drink rests solely with the drinker. At a certain point, however, the drinker loses his or her ability to make rational decisions about further alcohol consumption. The drinker’s ability to engage in appropriate behavior and make rational decisions is diminished. It is a truism worthy of a scientific designation; the more alcohol one consumes, the lower one’s ability to assess their own intoxication and assess their own ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. This most certainly creates a “Catch 22” logic model in which the person the retailer often believes responsible for determining whether their faculties are impaired becomes more and more impaired with each drink the retailer serves.

In Air Rage, aviation expert witness Capt. Bob Norris writes:

What are some of the reasons for the increase in passenger disturbances? Serving unlimited alcohol on flights, particularly in first and business class is encouraged by many airlines. With the decrease in cabin pressure at normal cruising altitudes, boarding the flight on an empty stomach can cause inebriation much more quickly. Additionally with airlines prohibiting smoking on their flights, smokers tend to substitute alcohol for cigarettes. Arriving early for a flight and the long delays experienced at most airports, therefore boarding the aircraft already inebriated. It is often difficult for the passenger agent with the brief contact they have with the passenger’s prior and during boarding to detect that a passenger has had too much to drink.

Paying several hundred or even thousands of dollars for an airline ticket seems to give some people the sense they can do whatever they please on an airplane. Many of the passengers are successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, or even professional athletes or entertainers who are use to being in control of their personal and professional lives and resent giving up control to airline employees. They may resent obeying safety rules, fastening seat belts, returning to their seats during expected turbulence, and turning off devices like cell phones or laptop computers.

In Dram Shop Laws – Improving Public Safety, dram shop expert witness Maj. Mark Willingham of Alcohol Solutions, LLC, writes:

A foreseeable and preventable tragedy unfolds several times a day somewhere in the United States. Over fifteen thousand people are killed and thousands more are seriously injured in impaired driving crashes in the United Sates each year. Even more shocking is that half of these deaths and injuries can be attributed to drivers who were coming directly from a beverage license premises where they were over-served or allowed to over-consume alcohol.

Beverage alcohol is the only universally available consumer product that has the capacity to cause changes in the consumer’s emotional state, his or her cognitive ability, gross and fine motor skills, and can diminish the drinker’s ability to make rational decisions. Beverage alcohol is widely sold and consumed in businesses that are primarily accessible through the use of personally operated vehicles creating a reasonable expectation that many customers will also drive those vehicles away from the bar or restaurant. Many will be under the influence of the intoxicating effect of the product and unable to safely operate those vehicles. At least 80 million trips are made annually in the United Sates by drivers with a BAC over .08.

In Air Rage, aviation expert witness Capt. Bob Norris writes:

A recent issue of a major air carrier’s employee publication noted an almost 200-percent increase between 1994 and 1995 in reports filed with the company by flight attendants describing interference from passengers. The interference included assaulting, threatening, or intimidating crewmembers performing their inflight duties. During this same period, the number of physical assaults experienced by flight attendants at this carrier increased threefold.

An assaults is an action taken toward an individual that creates the threat of bodily harm, the fear of physical injury or that involves actual physical contact of a threatening nature. Abusive or suggestive language, which does not create the threat of violence or harm, even though it may be offensive, is not considered assault. The flight attendant who has been assaulted will have to file the complaint.

In Air Rage, aviation expert witness Capt. Bob Norris writes:

Air rage. It’s a catchy name to encompass a wide variety of behaviors from passengers that pose a serious threat to safety of flight. It is becoming an unfortunate reality that passenger assaults on airline employees have increased significantly over the last several years. Cathy phrase or not, air rage is becoming an unfortunate reality for flight crewmembers to deal with. Thankfully, the vast majority are relatively simple acts of defiance, but sometimes the interference escalates to truly obnoxious behavior or even brutal violence it can have a significant safety of flight issue. With the majority of aircraft being flown by two-pilot cockpit crews, having one of the pilots going into the cabin to assist in resolving a dispute or an altercation can have a significant impact, if the pilot is subsequently incapacitated. With the 9/11 incidents, pilots are no longer allowed to leave the cockpit to assist in an altercation.

Fear mongering reports in the media and popular films frequently leave the impression that the main safety threats to commercial air carrier operations involve bombs, terrorist hijackings, and hazardous cargo. However, the reality belies some of these notions. Pilot and flight attendant reports indicate that passengers themselves are an unexpected source of many inflight safety problems, ranging from the merely annoying, to those that pose serious interference with crew duties and a potential risk to aircraft structural integrity.

In Expert Witnessing During the Current Economic Downturn, Hydrology and groundwater expert witness Rick Van Bruggen, P.E., D.WRE, gives advice on for experts in a rough economy:

One thing I would recommend to Experts during rough times is to stay on top of your retainers, especially with plaintiff’s attorneys. Don’t let your bill get too big without frequent invoicing, and don’t put your Expert’s Report, or your testimony, out there without first getting paid. Also, it’s a great time to market your business, install new software, upgrade your computer, or to get those CEU’s through a training course.

I just updated my CV, wrote up two years worth of case descriptions for my Representative Case List, and cleaned up my computer files and company databases. I still hope to write a couple of articles (one down, one to go), go through a new software tutorial, and upgrade a computer O.S. (actually, downgrade: from Vista, back to XP Pro), while I’ve got some extra time on my hands.

In Expert Witnesses and Reports, Manuel Lopez and David Chaumette of Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. write on expert reports:

By statute, Texas requires expert reports to prosecute various types of lawsuits-most notably medical malpractice lawsuits. This paper will not list every such requirement, but will list a few of these statutes and discuss, in particular, the medical malpractice requirements in some detail.

1. Texas Requires Expert Reports in Medical Malpractice Cases. The most litigated expert report requirement is the one that applies to medical malpractice cases and to other “health care liability claims.” TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE ANN. § 74.351 (Vernon 2005 & Supp. 2006).

Hydrology and groundwater expert witness Rick Van Bruggen, P.E., D.WRE, writes on whether expert witnesses are “recession proof.”

As an expert witness I am seeing that, while our field of work is not completely “recession proof,” it does seem to be significantly buffered from the full effects of a recession. The fact is, litigation does not stop during an economic downturn, but the nature of it may. As with the recession of ’01-’02, the impact of this recession on my expert witness work seems to have been delayed by some three to six months from the initial impact felt by the industrial sector of the economy, and the scope of that impact seems to be somewhat less ( I haven’t laid myself off… yet). Hopefully, as with the last recession, I will also see my business come back early-on, as the economy starts to improve. Of course, the big unknown now is how deep, and for how long, our economy will be in the tank.

Another trend I have seen is that, while my caseload is usually split 50/50 between defense and plaintiff work, I am approached by more council for defendants, verses plaintiffs, on new cases during a recession. This may speak to the fact that plaintiffs have to foot their own bills to initiate and maintain a piece of litigation, but defendants have to defend themselves, no matter what. While the number of civil cases that I get through insurance company subrogation seems not to have changed (I’m a flooding expert and it will always continue to flood somewhere), I would imagine that experts involved in more criminal cases would see an increase in their caseload, as the crime rate always seems to go up during hard times.