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Patents expert witnesses may opine on patent infringement, software patents, invention patents, and more. In the news this week, Carnegie Mellon University has been awarded almost $1.17B in its patent infringement lawsuit against Marvell Technology Group Ltd. The jury found that Marvell, maker of data storage chips, infringed on Carnegie Mellon technology patents while Marvell argued that the patents were not valid. The Pittsburg jury found that Marvell had sold billions of chips incorporating technology developed by Carnegie Mellon Professor Jose Moura and doctoral student Aleksandar Kavcic. Judge Nora Barry Fischer presided in the W.D. Pa. case (2:09-cv-00290-NBF).

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In Guidelines For The Expert Witness, Judge Timothy T. Daley, Family and Youth Court Judge Province of Nova Scotia, offers trial preparation guidelines including:

Guideline #12 – Answer only what is asked.

Be precise and do not offer gratuitous comments. Answer only what counsel or the court asks. If clarification or interpretation is needed, do so as necessary. It is better to acknowledge lack of expertise in a specific area than to risk misleading responses. Failure to acknowledge a possible second interpretation may result in a loss of credibility. Do not assume that counsel or the court are familiar with the profession, its descriptions and prescriptions. Assume that the evidence and the manner it is presented, will be assessed for validity and weighed against other evidence.

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In The Emotionally Labile Client; Duties – When A Client Threatens Violence, Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD, FACS, et al. and Michael Sacopulos, JD, write on what happens when a client threatens violence. See http://www.medicaljustice.com/.

Published in Elon Law Review, 2012, Spring, pp55-70.

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In Expert witnesses on trial, neurosurgery expert witness Dr. Jeffrey Segal writes that the ideal goal of an expert during testimony is to be “an indifferent advocate for the truth.” Dr. Segal is a board certified neurosurgeon and Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Medical Justice.

In 2000, he co-founded and served as CEO of DarPharma, Inc, a biotechnology company in Chapel Hill, NC, focused on the discovery and development of first-of-class pharmaceuticals for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Read his publications: http://www.medicaljustice.com/news/our-publications/.

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Thoracic surgery expert witnesses may opine on pulmonology, chest medicine, respiratory medicine, and more. The American Association for Thoracic Surgery has adopted a statement of qualifications for expert witnesses and guidelines for behavior of AATS members when acting as experts in the legal system including:

Making false, misleading, or deceptive statements exposes physician expert witnesses to risks of criminal prosecution for perjury, civil suits for negligence, and revocation or suspension of their professional licenses. Violation of these guidelines may lead to disciplinary action by the AATS. (See Article IX of the AATS By-laws.)

Read more: http://www.aats.org/

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In EMTALA What is the “Appropriate Medical Screening Examination,” emergency medicine expert witness Dainius A. Drukteinis writes:

Chances are if you are an emergency medicine physician or nurse you have probably heard of the acronym EMTALA. Even without knowing what it stands for, you likely shudder at the mere mention of the word, with its authoritative ring as if bellowed from a voice up above . . . E-M-T-A-L-A. If a senior physician tells you, “That violates EMTALA,” you don’t ask questions. You simply look down and respond “Yes, Sensai, it will not happen again.” If you have been in the emergency medicine field a few years, you probably know that EMTALA prohibits a hospital from turning patients away from the Emergency Department, and it also prohibits transferring unstable patients to another facility. You know that a violation of EMTALA means bad things will happen. What those bad things are, however, you are not sure. This is usually the extent of people’s knowledge because to know more would require reading the EMTALA statute, both boring and confusing, or court case opinions, more boring and more confusing.

This article introduces the basic concepts of EMTALA by providing a brief history of the statute with its original purpose, a discussion of the statute’s actual form, and subsequent interpretations of EMTALA based on cases. It is written in non-legal fashion, with details in the endnotes for those of you for whom “seeing is believing.” It then challenges your understanding of EMTALA by having you work through a real case before being given the Court’s rationale for its opinion. It will hopefully answer basic questions you have regarding the application of EMTALA, specifically the requirement to perform an “appropriate medical screening examination.” It does not discuss details regarding transferring unstable patients. Do not read this article if you think it will give you EMTALA peace. It will only lead to more questions, as any discussion of legal principles invariably leads to more questions than answers. For the obsessive-compulsive, welcome to the EMTALA black hole.

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In Guidelines For The Expert Witness, Judge Timothy T. Daley, Family and Youth Court Judge Province of Nova Scotia, offers pretrial preparation guidelines including:

Attend by court ordered summons or subpoena only.

The expert witness attends court at the request of a party or by court summons or subpoena. The expert witness should consider being formally ordered to attend rather than attending voluntarily. There are advantages to attending by court order.

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Thoracic surgery expert witnesses may opine on pulmonology, chest medicine, respiratory medicine, and more. The American Association for Thoracic Surgery has adopted a statement of qualifications for expert witnesses and guidelines for behavior of AATS members when acting as experts in the legal system including:

The physician expert witness should state the basis of his or her testimony or opinion, and whether it is based on personal experience, specific clinical references, evidence-based guidelines, or a generally accepted opinion in the specialty field.

Read more: http://www.aats.org/

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School safety expert witnesses may provide testimony regarding school violence, school crisis preparedness training, and school crisis services, as well as related topics. In Fight, Flight or Lockdown – Teaching Students and Staff to Attack Active Shooters could Result in Decreased Casualties or Needless Deaths, authors Michael S. Dorn and Stephen Satterly, Jr., of Safe Havens International write on incidents where victims are trapped by an active shooter.

Mike Dorn serves as the Executive Director of Safe Havens International, a non-profit school safety center. He has authored and co-authored 26 books on school safety and have served as a university police lieutenant, school district police chief and as the lead expert for the nation’s largest state government Pre K-20 school safety center. His articles may be found here: http://www.safehavensinternational.org/resources/articles/.

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In Screen a Medical Expert Witness with 5 Easy Questions, Mednick Associates writes that “Locating a medical expert witness to provide an objective opinion is a crucial, make or break moment for your case. Just spending the hours and energy searching for and locating a medical expert who will review your case file is not enough. Asking the right questions via a proper screening process is as important as the search itself.”

The five questions, including “Will you testify?,” may be found here: www.mednickassociates.