Expert Witness Blog

Risk management expert witnesses may write reports and consult on forecasting, risk assessment, the risk management process, and related topics. Federal law requires industrial facilities that use large amounts of extremely hazardous substances to file a Risk Management Plan with the EPA. In the news, the EPA is making available to the public hundreds of studies on chemicals that had been treated as confidential business information. The move is part of EPA’s plan to make public the chemicals that are not entitled to CBI status. Releasing the data will expand the public’s access to critical health and safety information on chemicals that are manufactured and processed in the U.S. This can be found at Chemical Data Access Tool.

Read more: rtknet.org.

Professional liability insurance expert witnesses may write reports and opine on professional indemnity insurance, errors & omissions insurance, and malpractice insurance, among other topics. On the website Everything Small Business, find the article Small Business Liability Insurance – The 4 Types That You Need To Protect Your Business:

Other Types of Small Business Liability Insurance

Business Owner’s Policies, also known as BOP’s, are policies that are many types of liability put together into one policy. The contents of one of these policies can be custom made by the agent as to what a business owner needs.

Truck drivers expert witnesses may testify on hours of service, trucking accidents, and federal motor vehicle safety standards, as well as related issues. In Monitoring Driver Behavior Can Improve Safety, Reduce Costs, Jim Beach, contributing editor & Deborah Lockridge, editor in chief of Trucking.com write:

Driver monitoring has evolved tremendously in recent years. Some carriers still rely on reports from a 1-800 “how’s my driving” number to find out when a driver is driving poorly, but many more are putting technology to work to take advantage of near-real-time reporting on driver performance. Today’s technologies allow fleets to keep track of not only where their trucks are at any moment, but also how the trucks are being operated.

Marketing expert witness Don E. Smith, President, American Consulting Group, LLC, writes on THE LIMITATIONS OF USING SALES QUOTAS AS THE PRIMARY MEASURE OF PERFORMANCE:

ADDITIONAL QUALITATIVE EVALUATION OPTIONS Define qualitative evaluation measures appropriate for your business. Based on the judgment of your field and headquarters personnel, evaluate each of your distributors. Page 4, table 5.

IV. SUMMARIZE EACH DISTRIBUTOR’S STRENGTHS, AREAS TO IMPROVE AND ACTION PLAN Based on the quantitative and qualitative information, define each distributor’s strengths, areas to improve and action plan. Page 4, table 6. The National Sales Manager or another appropriate person develops the action plan jointly with each distributor. The action plan should be reviewed and revised quarterly.

Trademarks expert witnesses may testify regarding trade secrets, trademark infringement, trademark licensing, and related matters. Recently, Apple Inc has expanded its lawsuit against Amazon.com in an amended trademark complaint against the online retail giant. Apple is accusing Amazon of trademark infringement over the use of the term ‘appstore.’

Read the complaint: justia.com.

Medical insurance expert witnesses may opine on health insurance claims, medical insurance deductibles, and related topics. In Understanding Co-Payments, Deductibles and Co-Insurance Scott Cornelius, board member of the Independent Agents of Oklahoma City, writes:

Health insurance is not as straight-forward an insurance policy as other types of insurance like auto, home and life. That’s because health insurance protects your wallet from more than just the medical bills that can occur after an accident or unexpected illness. It also extends to the costs of treatment for preventative measures and ongoing medical procedures and medications. So unlike an auto or life insurance policy, health insurance policies have a continuing, regular responsibility to assist you in receiving medical treatment. As you can imagine, that kind of responsibility could create a giant financial liability for health insurance companies that aren’t prepared for the claims to start coming in.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com.

In Avoiding the $475,000 Mistake – Entering the Credit Bid attorney John L. Hosack, Buchalter Nemer, and mortgages expert witness Joffrey Long write:

Full Credit Bids – The Problem:

If $575,000 is the total of your principal and accrued interest, late charges and other fees and costs, and the property reverts to you as beneficiary after you credit bid that amount, you’re deemed to have been “paid in full.” Having just acquired a $500,000 house in exchange for a $575,000 debt, you (and especially your investors) won’t want to consider this arrangement as “payment in full.”

Insurance fraud expert witnesses may testify on insurance claims, insurance regulations, and associated matters. On their website, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud writes Why Is Fraud So Big?:

Low Legal Priority. Prosecutors often give top priority to combating drugs, violence and other high-profile crimes. Though prosecutors are tackling more fraud cases than in the early 1990s, too many prosecutors still believe insurance crimes often are too complex and technical to successfully prosecute.

People Tolerate Fraud. Too many consumers believe insurance fraud is justified. This environment of tolerance makes it much easier for con artists to operate safely. Research by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud reveals:

Marketing expert witness Don E. Smith, President, American Consulting Group, LLC, writes on THE LIMITATIONS OF USING SALES QUOTAS AS THE PRIMARY MEASURE OF PERFORMANCE

Market. Most difficult measure to define but information has major value. Compare to national average or similar distributors. Keep it simple. Page 3, table 4, Market and Share Index. Examples of how estimate market share.

1. Distributor market = (Market potential in total US) x (% of industrial buying power in distributor territory).

Professional liability insurance expert witnesses may write reports and opine on professional indemnity insurance, errors & omissions insurance, and malpractice insurance, among other topics. On the website Everything Small Business, find the article Small Business Liability Insurance – The 4 Types That You Need To Protect Your Business:

4. Professional liability insurance is for professionals who need coverage from malpractice, negligence, errors and omissions. Attorneys, insurance agents, physicians, architects, information technologists, and artists are all professionals that require, to some degree, professional liability insurance. Affordable liability insurance can be acquired from many resources. Price quotes can be obtained from agents, online insurance providers, and various insurance companies.

Read more: everythingsmallbusiness.com.