Articles Posted in Researching Experts

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Petroleum engineering expert witnesses may consult on petrochemical engineering, horizontal drilling, and deepwater operations. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit judges Edith Brown Clement, James Dennis, and Leslie Southwick will be hearing arguments in the BP case over payments in the 2010 Deep Horizon oil spill. BP says settlement arrangements have been misconstrued resulting in businesses getting excessive payments.

In June the Coast Guard decided to stop sending out BP funded crews that have looked for oil deposits on northern Gulf Coast beaches on a regular basis.

More: http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/default.aspx

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Patents expert witnesses may consult on issues involving patent protection, patent prosecution, and patent infringement. Macobserver.com reports that Boston University has filed a patent suit against Apple over a semiconductor BU received a patent on in 1997. BU is seeking a sales injunction on Apple.

See complaint here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/151515660/BU-v-Apple.

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Pornography expert witnesses may provide reports concerning child pornography, cyberpornography, sexual exploitation, and domestic assault. Former Ripley, WV, police officer George Michael Puskas II pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in Charleston this week. Puskas taped child pornography using a digital camera issued by the police department.

Read more:http://www.wowktv.com/

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Bankruptcy expert witnesses may provide expert witness testimony concerning liquidation of assets, bankruptcy trustees, and corporate bankruptcies, as well as related issues. This week Jefferson County, AL, filed a plan to end the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, $4.2 billion.

Jefferson County filed for bankruptcy in 2011 with debts of $3.14B related to sewer work. While the debt outstrips the Orange County, CA, 1994 bankruptcy, it is the first time municipal bond investors are forced to take losses on their principal.

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Audio expert witnesses may consult on audio forensics, voice recognition, audio tape verification, recorded evidence, and acoustic engineering. Last week Judge Debra Nelson ruled on voice recognition evidence in the George Zimmermantrial. Judge Nelson found that the expert testimony regarding a 911 call did not meet scientific evidence standards.

Testimony has now reached the fourth day in the murder trial of Zimmerman who is accused of killing Trayvon Martin in 2012. Zimmerman maintains that he acted in self defense.

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Fuels expert witnesses may testify on petroleum hydrocarbon analysis, propane gas, solid fuels, automotive fuel, automotive fuel economy technology, and more. This week, the republic.com reports on the controversy over the high-ethanol blend of gasoline known as E15 which contains 15% ethanol. 10% is the norm sold at most U.S. gas stations.

Ethanol is an alternative fuel fermented from corn, grains or agricultural waste and is used to supplement gasoline.

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Environmental health expert witnesses may consult on environmental exposure, leaking underground storage tanks, and occupational safety. Hanford Nuclear Reservation is in the news at after the U.S. Energy Department reported that workers may have found leaking radioactive waste (chron.com). Hanford, in south-central Washington, was home to the first full scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Hanford plutonium was used in the first nuclear bomb and the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.

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In Workers’ Compensation Underwriting Philosophy as Partnership, workers compensation expert witness David L. Stegall, CPCU, ARM, ARe, RPA, writes:

The problem with workers’ compensation underwriting is relatively simple: How does an underwriter find employers whose employees do not get injured very often and that return to work well and quickly. Identifying a problem is much easier than solving it. The best service a business can provide is to solve a problem. Most of the problems with workers’ compensation are management problems, i.e. how the process is managed. Businesses handle processes in different ways, some more effectively and efficiently than others. The processes used by some employer’s lead to superior results, i.e. fewer losses (frequency) and lesser losses (severity) as compared to the employers who have poorer loss histories. Process management flows from management attitudes. The way a manager faces a problem has much to do with their success in solving the problem. So, what needs to be looked for is a management attitude: one of partnership and cooperation. An underwriter needs to look for employers who understand human resource management and who care about their employees.

David Stegall is the Principal Consultant at Risk Consulting & Expert Services.

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Pollution expert witnesses may provide reports concerning air pollution, air quality, contamination, and pollution regulations. In its annual World Energy Outlook report, the International Energy Agency says the world’s carbon dioxide emissions rose in 2012. China had the largest emissions growth last year. The IEA is an autonomous organization which works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 28 member countries and beyond.

More info: http://iea.org/

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Patents expert witnesses may consult on software patents, invention patents, patentability requirements, license agreements, and international patents, as well as related issues. Against the backdrop of Apple v. Samsung litigation, Chris Velazco writes for techcrunch.com How Samsung Got Big.

Before Samsung Electronics there was merely Samsung Sanghoe: a small trading company founded by Lee Byung-Chull in 1938 that dealt mostly in dried seafood, produce, and its own noodles.

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/how-samsung-got-big/