Expert Witness Blog

Aerosols expert witnesses may write reports and opine on aerosol sprays, airborne solid particles, and household chemicals. The National Aerosol Association writes: Let’s Set the Record Straight on Aerosols!

Q. What are aerosols, anyway?

A. Aerosols are very fine particles of liquid or solid substances suspended in air. Fog, for example, is a normal aerosol. In aerosol packaging, the substance to be sprayed is propelled through a valve as a fine mist or foam. This provides a safe, efficient means of dispensing thousands of consumer products such as shaving cream, hair spray, paint and antiperspirants.

In Documents, Documents and More Documents, construction site expert witness writes:

Some cases have as few documents as 50 to 100 pages for an expert to review, while others have thousands. When choosing an expert witness for a case, an astute attorney needs to consider whether the case will have a large volume of pages of documents and/or evidence.

The reality is that, while an expert may have the qualifications and expertise for the case, not all experts are equipped to document, catalog or evaluate large volumes of documents and evidence efficiently or properly — this requires a qualified and trained staff. “The devil is in the details,” and thousands of pages to review means thousands of details, all potentially significant.

Bicycle expert witnesses may write reports and opine on bicycle safety, bicycle accidents, and bicycle helmets. In Precious Protection, Bicycling.com writes on helmets:

Helmet designers have learned a lot in 60 years. You might notice that, for instance, the sides of your lid have more material, because, according to Thom Parks, vice president of corporate a! airs at Bell Sports, scientists know that, “Getting hit from the side is more likely to concuss than from the front or rear.” He also says that helmets are designed to protect against impacts to the temporal bone “above and to the rear of the eye, which is the thinnest part of the skull and more easily broken.”

These are just a few of the examples of how modern helmets are far safer than those from even a decade ago. Further proof that helmets are safe: Don’t wear one and you die. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), since 1998 thousands of people have died in bicycle accidents, more than 90 percent of whom weren’t wearing helmets. In 2008, IIHS stats show that 714 cyclists were killed. Only 58 of those cyclists were wearing helmets. The rest, 656, were lidless.

In Chest Pain & Medical Malpractice, medical malpractice expert witness Barry Gustin, M.D. writes:

The quality and quantity of pain itself is highly variable and in some situations may be totally absent and yet an AMI be in progress. Blunted pain responses commonly seen with underlying chronic disease in elderly patients frequently mask AMI and can stear a complacent physician away from the true diagnosis. These patients may present with other symptoms and signs indicative of serious disease such as sweating at rest, increasing fatigue with less activity and shortness of breath. Physicians must maintain a high index of suspicion and entertain a full range of differential diagnosis when evaluating patients.

Other factors can complicate the decision making process such as the stoic patient with chest pain who wishes to leave the ER before receiving a complete evaluation. In this setting, it is important that the family be included in the evaluation so that all clinically relevant information is obtained. Enlisting the family’s participation may also ensure that the patient does not leave the ER prematurely. But even if such a patient refuses admission and the physician is concerned about the possibility of serious disease, a compromise can be struck and the patient can be convinced to stay temporarily in the ER while repeated exams are performed and serial ECGs and cardiac enzymes are obtained thereby increasing the likelihood of detecting acute myocardial disease.

Call center industry expert witnesses may opine on telemarketing, call center agents, computer telephony integration, and related topics. In their white paper Data Security for Call Centers, Jim Beuoy & Dan WernerOKS-Ameridial Worldwide write:

The Payment Card Industry may not have direct regulatory authority over call centers, but it is safe to say that if data is compromised while in your center’s possession, someone is going to be very unhappy! Technically, credit card companies have a contract with the financial institutions that end up processing / posting credit card charges. Failure to comply with the PCI security standard can result in substantial fines and permanent expulsion from card acceptance programs. Call centers should be concerned because the PCI standards require that the financial institutions hold their down-line support services (i.e., the actual merchant and the other service providers) in compliance with the standards.

Read more: http://www.ataconnect.org/pdfs/whitepaper1.pdf.

Truck manufacturing industry expert witnesses may opine on commercial motor vehicles, trucking regulatory matters and related issues. The Truck Manufacturers Association website offers an interactive map with the following information and more:

Where are the medium and heavy-duty truck manufacturing plants?

Ford Motor Company – Ford Commercial Truck Daimler Trucks North America LLC – Freightliner Trucks – Western Star Trucks Navistar, Inc.

Engineering expert witness Philip J. O’Keefe, PE, writes that pressurized vessels can pose a danger for various reasons.

Perhaps the most obvious source of danger posed by a pressurized vessel is when its contents rapidly and violently discharge. This scenario presents the same hazards mentioned above, coupled with dangers associated with flying objects and shock waves. For example, if a pressure vessel is not securely held in place and it fails, the rapid release of its contents could literally turn it into a missile careening out of control.

I happened to be in close proximity to one of these “unintentional flying objects” one day. The valve broke off an unsecured pressurized gas cylinder of the type that welders use. Its gas escaped with sufficient force to cause the cylinder to fly across a concrete floor and crash through a cinderblock wall. The violent and rapid release of a pressure vessel’s contents also has the potential to create shock waves strong enough to move heavy objects and people, capable of catapulting them through the air.

In Dram Shop Laws – Improving Public Safety, dram shop expert witness Maj. Mark Willingham of Alcohol Solutions, LLC, writes:

Standards for dram shop lawsuits vary widely among states. Those standards include prohibitions of service to intoxicated, visibly intoxicated or obviously intoxicated patrons or when it should have been known that the patron was intoxicated. One state prohibits service to a drunken person in a criminally negligent manner. Another allows a civil action when the service was to a person clearly intoxicated. Several states require proof that the alcohol service was done in a reckless manner or that the alcohol was provided with reckless disregard to the rights of others. Other states require proof that the patron was intoxicated to the extent he or she presented a clear and present danger to self or other. Florida allows a dram shop action only when the alcohol service was to someone habitually addicted to alcohol. This standard is particularly difficult because alcoholics do not carry or present identification cards identifying them as such and rarely make self-admissions to bartenders.

Risk management expert witnesses may provide reports regarding value at risk, risk management plans, the risk management process, and more. The Professional Risk Manager’s Association explains that best practice governance and risk management do not attempt to eliminate risk.

Rather, they are designed to help organizations maximize the risk‐adjusted return on capital whilst, at the same time, transforming uncertainty ‐ which is unmanageable and unmeasurable ‐ into risk, which can be identified, assessed and may be measurable.

Decision‐making in business is predicated on a belief in potential rewards, balanced with the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of all of the risks taken to pursue those potential rewards. The key individuals involved in governance and risk management (see section IV of this document) have a responsibility to stakeholders, including the general public, as well as to financial stability. They must ensure that they do not give disproportionate weight to personal gain, or to the benefit of the organization, to the detriment of public good and of financial stability.

Read more: PRMIA.com.