Expert Witness Blog

Risk assessment expert witnesses may testify on the risk management process, risk analysis, enterprise risk management, and associated matters. In Uncertainty in Probabilistic Risk Assessment: A Review, A.R. Daneshkhah writes:

Risk assessment is widely recognized as a systematic process for quantitatively (or qualitatively) describing risk. Risk is commonly described as a combination of the likelihood of an undesirable event (accident) occurring and its consequences. Alternatively, Kaplan (1997) expressed risk as a mathematical combination of an accident’s event probability of occurrence and the consequence of that event should it occur.

Read more: www.shef.ac.

Merchandise licensing expert witnesses may testify on merchandising, character images, and merchandising fees. In the news recently, U.S. District Judge David Carter, Santa Ana, CA, dismissed the latest Bratz lawsuit against Mattel Inc. MGA Entertainment Inc. accused Mattel of antitrust violations over MGA’s Bratz dolls.

Read more: www.cacd.uscourts.gov.

In A Comparison of Self-Funded and Insured Health and Welfare Plans, health benefits expert witness Mark Johnson, J.D., Ph.D., ERISA Benefits Consulting, Inc., writes:

By working around the state insurance reserve, contribution, and other requirements applicable to insurance companies, MEWAs typically market their coverage at a lower rate than those of regulated companies. This is primarily why a MEWA is an attractive alternative for small businesses who find it difficult to obtain affordable health care coverage for their employees. In reality, however, a number of MEWAs have been unable to pay claims as a result of insufficient funding and inadequate reserves.

Sometimes MEWAs are operated by individuals who drain the assets through excessive administrative fees and embezzlement. Since 1983 a MEWA that constitutes an ERISA-covered plan is required to comply with the provisions of Title I of ERISA applicable to employee welfare benefit plans, in addition to state insurance laws and regulations.

In The Case for Forensic Polygraph Testing in Post-Adjudication Sexual Offender Examination and Management, polygraph expert witness Ken Blackstone writes:

The Problem

Polygraph examination is a catch-all term used to describe the use of the polygraph instrument, either as a forensic tool to determine the veracity of a statement or as a utility tool to generate statements and disclosures. While these two approaches are superficially similar their foundations are not.

Risk assessment expert witnesses may testify on the risk management process, risk analysis, enterprise risk management, and associated matters. In Experts chide TSA for poor risk assessment of security measures, Jim Harper, Cato Institute’s

Director of Information Policy, says:

Control over passenger screening technology should be shifted to airlines because the private sector is better than the Transportation Security Administration at making economical security choices based on risk management analyses.

In The Advantages of Strategic Advisory Boards For Agency Owners insurance agencies expert witness Andres Barile, MBA, CPCU, writes:

Accessing capital to grow your agency – For the geographical expansion of your wholesaler, you require additional capital. The strategic advisory board has already approved the expansion expenditure, and now turns to securing capital. Strategic advisory directors have access to expansion capital. The entire process of obtaining expansion capital must be done professionally, and is another area where strategic advisory directors can make a significant contribution.

Read more: insuranceexpertnetwork.com.

Trucking accidents expert witnesses may testify on issues including federal motor carrier safety regulations, crashworthiness, truck maintenance, hours of service, and associated matters. The US Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) maintains several Web sites that provide easy access to valuable safety-related information. Users only need a company’s name, USDOT number or motor carrier (MC) number to perform a search. The Company Snapshot is a concise electronic record of a company’s identification, size, commodity information, and safety record, including the safety rating (if any), a roadside out-of-service inspection summary, and crash information.

Read more: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety-security/sites/company-safety.htm.

In A Comparison of Self-Funded and Insured Health and Welfare Plans, health benefits expert witness Mark Johnson, J.D., Ph.D., ERISA Benefits Consulting, Inc., writes:

Another form of health plan is the Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangement (MEWA). In a MEWA, a group of unaffiliated employers pool their contributions in a self-funded benefits plan for their employees. The contributions are based on the number of employees that work for each employer and the estimated costs associated with the plan. This arrangement is a way for smaller employers to get group health and other benefits for their employees.

Supporters of MEWAs typically represent the MEWA as an employee benefit plan covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and, therefore, exempt from state insurance regulation under ERISA’s broad pre-emption provisions.