Expert Witness Blog

Business income claims expert witnesses may advise on issues involving loss of revenue, insurance fraud, and related issues. Here Bruce D. Smith, CPA and certified fraud examiner explains:

What is a Forensic Accounting?

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) explains that, “Forensic accounting is the use of professional accounting skills in matters involving potential or actual civil litigation. The word “forensic” is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “used in or suitable to courts of law or public debate.” More simply put forensic accounting is litigation support involving accounting.

In How we created an almost paperless real estate expert office, real estate expert witness Merrie Turner Lightner writes on shared virtual work spaces:

The skeleton of our virtual workspace is Central Desktop. Case documents are uploaded just once and reside in a secure virtual library, hugely reducing paper waste and the time required to make repetitive paper copies. Email discussions are posted in this virtual workspace instead of being sent to individual mailboxes. A centralized location for files, discussions, databases and task lists allows Ms. Lightner’s clients and experts to access critical data and information – 24×7 with only a web browser and internet connection.

Team members can even create and revise Word and Excel documents stored on the Central Desktop site, from directly within Microsoft Office. Users document and organize, link and reorganize their research. They can also create custom databases for storing information, and stream-lining the work flow of their business information documentation. Important too, Central Desktop provides a time ticket function for billing purposes, as well as a calendaring system that’s integrated with Microsoft Outlook. These are just a few of the available built-in tools for day-to-day usage. Because Central Desktop is very flexible, we can customize each client’s virtual workspace on a case-by-case basis.

Medical insurance expert witnesses may provide testimony regarding managed care, HMOs, and related topics. Here, the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents reports:

The U.S. Senate fell six votes short on November 29 in a bid to repeal a provision of the healthcare law requiring businesses of all sizes, as well as governments and nonprofits, to file a 1099 form with the Internal Revenue Service reporting any purchases they make of goods or services of $600 or more in a tax year from any individual or business, including corporations.

Read more: National Association of Professional Insurance Agents.

In Accident Reconstruction of Low Speed Impacts, accident reconstruction and automotive engineering expert witness writes:

Low speed impacts represent substantial number of accident-related claims and deserve attention of experts in the accident reconstruction field. Low speed impacts often occur at the intersections when a moving car rear-ends a stationary vehicle which has already stopped for a light or about to resume its motion after the light turned green. In auto accident reconstruction terms, the moving car (often the one that rear-ends the stationary vehicle) is called the “bullet” and the stationary vehicle is called the “target”.

Determining the amount of energy transferred from bullet vehicle to target vehicle in a real world crash has often been attempted by applying data compiled in crash testing. This is frequently problematic for a number of reasons. First, these crash tests are conducted with a vehicle and a fixed barrier, not with the moving vehicles. Second, these crash tests also cannot be applied to low-speed impacts because the crash testing is routinely performed at speeds exceeding 30 mph, making it impossible to extrapolate the crush values to lower speed collisions.

Managed care expert witnesses may opine on liability insurance, HMOs, and related issues. The Physicians Insurers Association Research Department reviews data, issues, and policies concerning the medical professional liability insurance industry to produce helpful resources.

Semi-annually, the PIAA analyzes data captured by the PIAA Data Sharing Project to develop a national overview of claim trends, and to identify areas of practice most vulnerable to assertions about liability. The Association uses the data gleaned from those reports to compose relevant white papers and major studies. The PIAA also works with other associations and medical society groups in joint research projects aimed at improving the delivery of healthcare and reducing practitioner liability.

Read more: piaa.us.

Insurance regulation expert witnesses may write reports and opine on insurance claims, insurance business customs and practices, and related topics. Here, the American Insurance Association defines SAP:

Statutory Accounting Principle (SAP): Those principles required by state insurance laws followed by an insurance company when submitting its financial statements to the various state insurance departments. Such principles differ from Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP) in some important respects. For example, SAP requires that expenses must be recorded immediately and cannot be deferred to track with premiums as they are earned and taken into revenue.

Insurance practices expert witnesses may write reports and opine on insurance claims, insurance coverage, casualty insurance, and related topics. Here, the American Insurance Association defines casualty insurance:

Insurance primarily concerned with the legal liability for losses caused by injury to persons or damage to property of others. Also includes, among other coverages: automobile, workers’ compensation, employers’ liability, general liability, plate glass, theft and personal liability. It excludes life, fire and marine insurance.