Articles Posted in Expert Witness Testimony

Two expert witnesses in Louisville, KY had a bad day in court this week. First, antique weapon expert witness R.L. Wilson, along with Michael Salisbury, and Karen Salisbury, were charged with conspiring to defraud Owsley Brown Frazier and his International History Museum by taking commissions and kickbacks totaling $1.75 million.

Second, appraisal & valuation expert witness C.W. Slagle was forced to admit on Friday that he had fabricated part of his resume and admitted that he had falsely described himself as a University of Illinois graduate in civil engineering. Courier-journal.com also reports:

In response to questioning, Slagle claimed he attended the university though he didn’t finish — but an attorney for one of the defendants showed the jury letters from the university saying there was no record that he’d ever enrolled…. Slagle, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was hired to appraise weapons in September 2002, after museum officials began to suspect that Wilson may have inflated his valuations.

Boston orthopedic surgery expert witness Dr. Brian Awbrey testified Wednesday that a succession of issues would have been avoided if Dubuque podiatrist Dr. Michael Arnz had avoided his use of a circular frame. Daniel Day is seeking monetary damages from The Finley Hospital. “There would have been no infection of the tibia, and we wouldn’t be here today,” Dr. Awbrey said. A former team doctor for the New England Revolution professional soccer team, Awbrey testified as an expert witness for Day’s attorneys. THonline also reports:

Day subsequently developed osteomyelitis, a serious bone infection that required four surgical procedures to remove dead bone. ‘The exposure of these additional risks (from the pins of the circular frame) is what led to his osteomyelitis directly,’ Awbrey said. Awbrey testified it would be unwise to operate on Day’s foot or tibia in the future, because any procedure would run the risk of reawakening any dormant osteomyelitis. However, on cross-examination, Awbrey did admit that a leg amputation could be performed and that this procedure would eliminate the risk of future osteomyelitis.

More on Searchsystems.net v. Musselman:

U.S. District Court Judge Maxine Chesney awarded SearchSystems.net $780,000 in damages against convicted Cyber-Pirate Mark Musselman and his website, courtsonline.org. Internet expert witness Carole Levitt stated that “Searchsystems was an original and unique website which defendants copied–both the content and organization–and thus violated Search Systems intellectual property rights.” California News Wire reports Pacific Information Resources, Inc.’s President/CEO Tim Koster, whose Thousand Oaks, California company operates www.searchsystems.net as stating :

‘Hundreds of thousands of consumers have discovered, in purchasing their ‘public records access subscriptions’ from websites such as courtsonline .org, websherlock .com, detectivechoice .com, webinvestigator .org, restrictedonly .com, cisworldwide .com and datahounddetective .com, that eventually their subscription does not ‘work.’ Their access to the full data base is ultimately denied,’ Koster explained. ‘These confused consumers do not realize that they purchased their subscriptions from a website that had no authorization to sell access to Search Systems’ content.’ In response to the flood of e-mails from angry and confused consumers, SearchSystems.net initiated a series of lawsuits against these alleged cyber-pirates….

SearchSystems.net, a highly regarded site for researching public records, obtained a judgment of $780,000 in San Francisco U.S. District Court this week against convicted Cyber-Pirate Mark Musselman and his website, courtsonline.org. Internet expert witness Carole Levitt stated that “Searchsystems was an original and unique website which defendants copied–both the content and organization–and thus violated Search Systems intellectual property rights.” California News Wire reports:

Musselman was sentenced earlier this year to 12 years in prison and over $4.6 million in criminal fines and penalties on a 47 count cyber-fraud conviction in Montgomery County, Ohio Common Pleas Court. Subsequently, he was declared liable under a ten count complaint for Internet consumer fraud by the Miami County, Ohio Common Pleas Court, under a similar set of facts as those presented to the Federal District Court in San Francisco, which entered this week’s Judgment and Permanent Injunction.

In 2004 Clinton San Francisco and his wife, Jessie, sued Wendy’s over what they said was a bad hamburger bought in Charleston. In 2006 Kanawha Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib said the doctor who treated Clinton and a food expert witness were not qualified to serve as experts in the case under state trial rules but the State Supreme Court justices handed down a recent decision saying that a jury can hear the expert witness testimony and decide whether or not it’s credible.

The Charleston Daily Mail also reports:

Chief Justice Robin Davis said in a separately written opinion that she hoped the state’s lower courts would take heed of the San Francisco decision.

In Utilizing Experts In An Expert Way, Kelli Hinson and Tesa Hinkley describe the crucial role expert witnesses have at trial and give advice on how best to use them. In this excerpt, Hinson and Hinkley give tips on selecting the attorney to communicate with experts.

In large cases, designating a point person whose responsibilities include communicating with the experts avoids unnecessary work and ensures coordination of expert research and legal strategy. The point person should be quanitatively skilled and have some decision-making authority or direct access to a senior case manager.

Excerpted from the ABA Expert Witness Alert, Summer/Fall 2007

In Utilizing Experts In An Expert Way, Kelli Hinson and Tesa Hinkley describe the crucial role expert witnesses have at trial and give advice on how best to use them. In this excerpt, Hinson and Hinkley give tips on managing documents.

On smaller cases, sending all documentation to the experts and spending time reviewing the materials with them is often most efficient. On the other hand, ten boxes of documents accompanied by a two-sentence cover note – something we’ve experienced – is not an effective way to proceed. On the largest cases, direct access to the document management system is by far the best way to manage the process effectively.

In one recent case, the law firm we were working with installed its proprietary document management system and database program on our computers to provide us with electronic access to all documents. In real time, we could query the fully text-searchable database for documents or keywords. This saved considerable time and money (and trees) despite the initial investment. If such a system cannot be made available to the expert, try at least to provide documents in a searchable format on CDs.

In Utilizing Experts In An Expert Way, Kelli Hinson and Tesa Hinkley describe the crucial role expert witnesses have at trial and give advice on how best to use them. In this excerpt, Hinson and Hinkley give tips on managing the information flow in your case.

When massive amounts of documents and facts are involved, it is tempting to restrict the amount of information flowing to experts. However, because the expert is independent and must consider all relevant information, such an approach can backfire, leading to surprises in deposition or testimony and potential amendments to a report. Providing access to all documents and fact witnesses while assisting the expert in the selection of relevant documents is the safer way to proceed, and can be done efficiently. Costs can be minimized by relying on those working under the expert’s direct supervision (and at lower rates). Such staff can pre-screen client personnel for discussions with the expert, review documents, and develop factual summaries that consist of quoted excerpts and are devoid of opinion.

Excerpted from the ABA Expert Witness Alert, Summer/Fall 2007

The Sun Times reports: An Ontario Municipal Board hearing into a proposed Wal-Mart in Port Elgin was suspended as lawyers and OMB officials went behind closed doors for most of the day Thursday. One of those witnesses was Laura Robinson, who was introduced as an violent crime expert witness speaking on violence against women. Robinson supports FOSS’s stand that any large development on the land in question will compromise the safety of recreational trail users. “It’s a story that needs to be told,” she said. “As an athlete I understand that you’re already taking a risk due to the inherent danger of sport . . . there is a responsibility to reduce other risks. Not knowing who is around the corner is a danger. Wal-Mart’s own expert witness called the trail curve an ambush site. That’s frightening.”

A San Francsico federal grand jury has indicted Barry Bonds on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction alleging that he “knowingly and willfully” made material false statements regarding his use of performance-enhancing substances during his grand jury testimony in the into the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative. Bonds had a grant of immunity during his 2003 testimony with one exception: If he committed perjury or made a false declaration, he could be charged.

Columbia University law professor John C. Coffee Jr., a white-collar crime specialist, said it will be hard to prove that Bonds knowingly made a false statement with the intent of misleading the grand jury. “You can imagine the defense putting on expert witnesses about how Bonds could have believed this was some of exotic” but legal product, Coffee said, reports LATimes.com.