Articles Posted in Expert Witness Testimony

Rhode Island won a landmark lawsuit against former manufacturers of lead paint but the two sides cannot agree on how to clean up the contaminated properties. Sherwin-Williams, Millennium Holdings LLC, and NL Industries, Inc., were found liable for “creating a public nuisance by manufacturing and selling a toxic product” which could them cost billions of dollars. They would like to call expert witnesses in an appeal according to the Boston.com . The companies say they need “more evidence and information before any work can begin.” They have appealed to the Rhode Island Supreme Court in order to conduct further hearings and cross-examine lead paint expert witnesses.

British aviation expert witness Rodney Wallis testified in the Air India inquiry that he’s concerned about the U.S. practice of having security officers with guns aboard flights. Expert witness Wallis consults for the International Civil Aviation Organization and warns that bullets could hit passengers or pierce the aircraft skin causing cabin decompression resulting in a crash.

“There is no place for a weapon of any sort in the cabin of an airplane.”

Armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police do ride some Canadian commercial airliners, mostly on routes to Washington, D.C., to comply with U.S. requirements reports CBCNews.ca.

Judge Martin E. Smith told prosecutors they must try to bring expert witness Dr. Henry Lee from Italy to Owego, NY, in order for him to offer live testimony in the second-degree murder trial of Calvin Harris. DNA analysis expert witness Lee is expected to testify that tiny amounts of blood found in the house of Calvin Harris more than five years ago is that of his estranged wife, Michele Harris, who disappeared in 2001.

Lee had already testified in the Harris case via videotape but the May 23 California ruling that Lee hid evidence in Phil Spector’s murder trial could mean that the expert’s videotaped testimony will be thrown out. Defense attorneys are expected to call into question Lee’s credibility before the Harris jury according to PressConnects.com.

Defense attorneys tried to discredit the expert witness testifying in the manslaughter trial of a former Pasadena school bus driver who ran over and killed a 9-year-old girl in August 2005.

Attorneys Schneider and Fickman questioned school bus expert witness Carlisle Beasley who testified that there are no blind spots on a school bus if a driver has properly adjusted mirrors and is “doing his job.” Pictures from the day of the incident showed the mirrors “aren’t properly adjusted,” said Ms. Beasley, who worked for 34 years as the transportation director for Nashville schools as reported in the Houston Chronical.com.

A federal judge has ordered a third trial in a lawsuit by a woman who blamed Merck & Co.’s painkiller Vioxx for the heart attack that killed her husband. U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon ruled that the cardiology expert witness who testified for Merck misrepresented his qualifications in the second trial last year. Jurors ruled in favor of Merck and against Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, whose first husband, Richard Irvin, died of a heart attack after taking Vioxx for less than a month.

Expert witness Dr. Barry Rayburn, a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, testified in Plunkett’s second trial that the drug could not have caused Irvin’s heart attack. When he was brought to the stand, he was asked whether he was board-certified. His answer was, “Yes, I passed boards in internal medicine and in cardiovascular disease” but his certification had lapsed at the time. Rayburn then passed the board examinations for recertification in 2006, reports Forbes.com.

Former media baron Conrad Black and other former executives of Hollinger International are charged with defrauding the company of $84 million through non-competition payments. Last week the prosecution focused on charges against Black alone regarding obstruction of justice and his opulent New York apartment.

Federal prosecutor Edward Sisko brought in real estate appraisal expert witness John Miller, of consulting firm Miller Samuel Inc. Expert witness Miller testified that Black’s apartment at 635 Park Ave. had a fair market value of $5.2 million and not the $3 million that Black paid for it.

The prosecution also showed security footage with Black and his chauffer carrying 13 mysterious boxes out the back door to his car from Hollinger’s Toronto office. The SEC had ordered that no documents could be removed without approval by an inspector according to Medhill Reports.

Organized crime expert witness and former FBI agent James Wagner will be allowed to testify at the trial of several alleged mob figures accused of taking part in a conspiracy that included 18 murders. U.S. District Judge James Zagel said expert witness Wagner can discuss how the so-called Chicago Outfit is structured and how it operates, although he can’t talk about individual members or the defendants.

Defense attorneys do not want Wagner, head of the Chicago Crime Commission and former head of the FBI’s organized crime unit in Chicago, to link their clients to the mob. The trial is expected to start in June and is aimed at clearing up unsolved gangland slayings, reports the The Journal Gazette – Times Courier.

Tim Storey of the National Conference of State Legislatures will be the lead expert witness at the California Assembly Elections Committee hearings on redistricting. The NCSL is a bipartisan group representing all 50 state legislatures. Storey, an expert witness on redistricting, is a senior fellow with NCSL and has authored many articles on the redistricting and elections processes.

So far this year more than 25 states have considered proposals, but so far none has passed one. In the last two year period preceding this year, 23 states looked at proposals according to the California Progress Report.

Justice T. David Little of the Ontario Superior Court spoke at the Advocates’ Society 2007 Spring Symposium in Toronto regarding expert witnesses. Justice Little said that expert witnesses are there to assist the court with issues that it may not understand. “Tell the expert before they get on the stand, ‘Don’t be an advocate.” In Ontario counsel have to seek leave from the trial judge if they wish to call more than three expert witnesses.

Also speaking at the symposium was Joan Lukey, a partner with WilmerHale in Boston. Ms. Halle spoke on holographic evidence. The technology has been used in one trial so far in the United States in a case that questioned a surgeon’s actions during a medical procedure. A holographic model of the operating room was created as evidence, which resembled the actual scene from the day in question, complete with the appearance of virtual figures in the room, as reported in LawTimes.com.

Yorkville, IL residents called their own expert witnesses to fight landfill developer Fox Moraine LLC’s plan for a landfill on the city’s southwest side. Fox Moraine argued that properties near the facility would suffer no serious harm. After hearings, Yorkwille aldermen voted 7 to 1 against the plan. Aldermen Golinski described Fox Moraine’s landfill expert witness as “unconvincing.”

Many of the city officials have questioned Fox Moraine’s safety measures, its traffic plan and its compliance with Kendall County rules, which ban landfills within city limits says the BeaconNews Online.