Articles Posted in Expert Witness News

In Mold Claims: Recognizing What Is Real and Dealing With the Current Excessive Fears and Claims, pollution expert witness Ronald E. Gots, MD, Ph.D.writes:

The recent mold frenzy is the strangest environmental claims issue that I have seen in thirty years of toxicological and environmental litigation consulting. Why? Mold is a natural living material and is essential for life. It has neither become more prevalent than it was twenty years ago; nor is there much additional support for any new adverse health effects despite thousands of active claims alleging the contrary. Most of the allegations in this arena are based upon substantial misinformation, so often repeated that they have garnered an aura of certitude. Among the misinformation: mold and mold toxins in the indoor environment are not known to cause brain damage,1 immunological disorders, bleeding lungs in newborns,2,3 fibromyalgia, attention deficit disorder, cancer or chronic fatigue syndrome. The alleged chronic disorder of “fungal syndrome”4 or “bioaerosal disease” are neither accepted in the medical community, nor known to exist.

Pesticides expert witness Allan Snyder; ACGIH, AIHA, SPCI writes on treatment and control of termites:

Treatment and control techniques vary depending on the species causing an infestation.

Multiple colonies of the same species of termite or more than one species of termite can infest a building.

In Using Marketing, Business & Competitive Research to Win Cases, Don E. Smith, marketing expert witness and President of American Consulting Group, Inc. explains that marketing research is a powerful tool that helps lawyers win cases.

Areas that benefit from marketing research:

Advertising effectiveness

Flooring expert witness Kenneth D. Newson describes the forensic science of floor covering and how investigation begins with discovery. The steps include:

1. Site visit (no geographical limitation)

2. Videography

The wife of Morton Scheinbaum has sued Las Vegas Mountain View Hospital over the death of her ex-husband. Linda Scheinbaum claims nearly an hour had passed from the time her husband arrived at Mountain View Hospital while a nurse insisted on getting his Social Security number, emergency contact and insurance information.The Scheinbaums were told to take a seat and wait – even though a delay of just minutes can make the difference between life and death during a heart attack.

Dr. John MacGregor, a cardiology expert witness from San Francisco General Hospital, would say later that Scheinbaum should have been rushed immediately into the emergency room for treatment. And emergency room bystanders would testify to their shock that the hospital staff failed to take his condition seriously.

In Industry Standards, Technology Associates, the forensic engineering expert witness company discusses cases where there may be no significant amount of “good” custom and practice within an industry.

…where there is no good custom and practice within the industry, the need for dispassionate engineering judgment is even greater. Further, the engineer should be familiar with relevant techniques outside of the industry in question, so as to determine whether such techniques can be used to improve custom and practice within the subject industry. As a case in point, consider the application of a “dead-man” control to lawnmowers, for the purpose of automatically stopping the rotating blade when the operator takes his hands off the push-bar, for clearing a clump of grass which has become lodged in the structure of the lawnmower at a point dangerously near the blade. The dead-man concept, although long used in other types of machinery, has only recently received substantial (and badly needed) acceptance in lawnmowers.

In summary, in contrast to formal standards as defined above, an industry standard based on custom and practice may be relatively indefinite, requiring engineering analysis, judgment and explanation (especially in the area of human factors) in order to be used as a valid criterion for safe design and practice.

Ray Everett-Church has been appointed Director of Privacy and Industry Relations at Responsys, a leading global provider of on-demand email and marketing automation solutions. Mr. Everett-Church, an internationally recognized author and expert witness on privacy and technology policy issues, has spent nine years at the forefront of industry efforts to increase trust and relevance in email and interactive marketing. The computer security expert is co-author of “Internet Privacy for Dummies” and “Fighting Spam for Dummies.” He serves as an expert witness on privacy and security matters and is a frequent commentator on privacy and technology policy issues.

Dan Springer, Chief Executive Officer of Responsys, has this to say on computer security: “The adoption and use of new trust and privacy enhancing technologies is one of the biggest issues facing the marketing industry today.”

In Strategic Security Management: A Risk Assessment Guide for Decision Makers, author and security expert witness Karim H. Vellani provides a “definitive text on security best practices, introduces the concept of analysis for security decision making, and discusses advanced threat, vulnerability, and risk assessment techniques that you can apply to your organization’s security program.” The first two chapters include:

Chapter 1, Data Driven Security, sets the tone for the rest of the book with its discussion of a relatively new security concept, using data to drive the security program. Security professionals, only recently, have started using quantitative data to determine appropriate security levels. This chapter provides some of that food for thought mentioned above as well as a “howto” for developing security metrics.

Chapter 2, Asset Identification and Security Inventory, discusses the first two steps of the risk assessment process, the identification and categorization of organizational assets and the itemization of existing security measures. Critical assets, those that are integral to the organization’s mission, are the focal point of the first half of this chapter, while three types of security measures are discussed in the latter half. Also included in this chapter is a list of definitions so we’re all speaking the same language as we progress through the book.

In Post Loss Underwriting is an Oxymoron, attorney and insurance expert witness Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, discusses “post loss underwriting.” His firm’s practice emphasizes the representation of insurers and those in the business of insurance.

In California there is much publicity for what the plaintiffs’ bar calls “post loss underwriting” as a pejorative way of speaking of the equitable remedy of rescission. Post loss underwriting does not exist. Underwriting is a decision making process. It is made before insurance is issued. Rescission is an equitable remedy when an insurer is deceived regarding a material fact. If the rescission is improper the insured is not without a remedy.

As the Court of Appeal stated in Imperial Casualty & Indemnity Company v. Levon Sogomonian, 198 Cal. App. 3d 169 (1988), “Our conclusion here should not result in an assumption by insurers that policy liability can, with impunity, be avoided or delayed by assertion of a claim for rescission. That is a tactic which is fraught with peril. Where no valid ground for rescission exists, the threat or attempt to seek such relief may itself constitute (1) a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing which is implied in the policy (citations omitted) and/or (2) the commission of one or more of the unfair claims settlement practices proscribed by Insurance Code section 790.03, subdivision (h).”

In Mediation as a Discovery Tool, insurance expert witness Guy O. Kornblum describes the benefits of going to mediation:

So the case does not settle at mediation! Disappointment perhaps, but there are other benefits to going to a mediation. One of them is the exchange of information that takes place between or among the parties. This is particularly true of a mediation that takes place early in the case, or at a certain point in time after the parties have exchanged limited information. Even though a mediation takes place, it is sometimes the case that the parties simply do not know enough about the other side’s position or the facts of the case; therefore, productive negotiations just don’t happen. Or, it may be that the perception of the parties is just quite different and more information needs to be exchanged before settlement can be reached.