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SEAK Inc. is organizing the 21st edition of its Annual National Expert Witness Conference at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in Falmouth, Massachusetts on August 23rd and 24th, 2012. The Conference aims to provide support and training to experts from all disciplines and with all levels of experience and promises to provide a discussion on all aspects of expert witness testimony, ethics, and trial techniques by nationally recognized attorneys, experts, judges, and educators.

Download the Conference Flyer

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Apartment security expert witness John Harris conducted a forensic evaluation and opined in litigation that resulted in a $20 million award to a female tenant who was raped in her apartment at Promenade Culllen Park in Houston, TX….

Mr. Harris found that the apartment complex did not comply with security industry standards, consensual guidelines and industry best practices regarding notification to tenants of crimes occurring on the property and of dangerous conditions posed by easy accessibility to second floor balconies by unauthorized persons. He determined that notices sent to tenants by management misstated the facts of the previous break-in and withheld information about potential harm to the tenants of the property including the rape victim. As a result of this conclusion the apartment management practices were examined under the Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act and were found to be in violation due the intentional withholding of facts to gain business.

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Attorneys for Christopher Harris have hired DNA specialist Dr. Julie Heinig in a Logan County Court, IL, murder case. Harris is charged in the 2009 robbery, assault and murders at the Beason family home. Heinig is the Assistant Laboratory Director at the DNA Diagnostics Center and previously served as Senior DNA Analyst at the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office.

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Trucking expert witnesses may testify on transportation charges, fuel charges, fuel surcharges, and more. In the news, Valero Energy Corp, Casey’s General Stores Inc., and Wal-Mart have approved a settlement regarding hot fuel. Consumer groups say that when gasoline and diesel fuel expand in warm months, the consumer gets less energy per gallon. Costco has agreed to convert gas pumps in some states to adjust for fuel expansion.

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Workers’ compensation plans expert witnesses may write reports and opine on compensation claims, compensation benefits, and employee claims. In the news last month, Dinesh Sethi, owner of DES Staffing Services, was sentenced in Des Moines, IA, to 57 months of imprisonment for his fraudulent scheme to avoid paying $778,940.00 in workers compensation premiums to Travelers and Liberty Mutual Insurance companies. Chief Judge James E. Gritzner also sentenced Sethi to a 5 year term of supervised release, $778,940.00 in restitution and a $100.00 Crime Victim Fund assessment.

Sethi directed the creation of two shell companies, Staffing Professionals and KDM Staffing, and transferred DES employees to those entities to avoid the larger workers compensation premiums DES owed as a result of its accident and claims history.

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Insurance fraud expert witnesses may testify on health care fraud, insurance claims, medical insurance, and correlated matters. In the news this month, Angela Shae Ellison, 45, was charged in Des Moines, IA, with defrauding Medicaid and health insurers of more than $700,000, for medical services that were never performed. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says Ellison submitted false insurance claims to Medicaid, WellMark Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Aetna and United Health.

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Apartment security expert witness John Harris conducted a forensic evaluation and opined in litigation that resulted in a $20 million award to a female tenant who was raped in her apartment at Promenade Culllen Park in Houston, TX. The jury awarded $7 million for physical pain and mental anguish, $5 million for future mental anguish and $8 million for violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The security forensic evaluation conducted by John Harris included a risk assessment to determine the threat level and a security vulnerability assessment to determine appropriate countermeasures to mitigate risk.

More to come.

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Human resources expert witness Jerry Glass, president of F&H Solutions Group, testified in the American Airlines’ Section 1113 (Rejection of a Collective Bargaining Agreement) hearing in New York. The senior vice president of American Airlines, Jeff Brundage will testify April 26th. T

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GenPsych’s engineering expert witness and architecture expert witness will testify before the Lebanon (NJ) Township planning board on a proposed addiction treatment facility. GenPsych provides outpatient psychiatric and substance abuse services. The planned conversion of an office building would be their first residential facility.