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In A Square Peg in a Round Hole – Building Design v. Occupancy Use, products liability expert witness Robert L. Rowe, President of Pyrocop, Inc., writes:

Part 3

As you can see, this was a significant challenge for me as the building was not protected by a fire sprinkler system and the manner of storage was inappropriate for the building design. Without question, this was a distinct fire/life safety hazard that I could not allow to continue until the building was brought up to code. After contacting both the tenant and the property management company as well as spending hours upon hours reviewing the codes trying to come up with a reasonable solution to maintain a safe building and at the same time try to preserve their business, I just could not fit “a square peg in a round hole” without the landlord and tenant spending thousands of dollars to “make it work”.

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wrongful death expert witness Robert L. Rowe, President of Pyrocop, Inc., writes:

Part 2

A 30,000 square foot, nonsprinklered, 1950’s era commercial building in an industrial area was sitting vacant for some time which was “bleeding” money by the hour. There were several prospective tenants who inquired but, for one reason or the other, the building was not the right fit. Finally, an import export company looked at the facility and without hesitation, signed a lease and moved in. Had it not been for the City’s business license inspection program, I would have never known that building was occupied or being used.

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In A Square Peg in a Round Hole – Building Design v. Occupancy Use, fire expert witness Robert L. Rowe, President of Pyrocop, Inc., writes:

Part 1

During my tenure as Fire Marshal in the Los Angeles Area, I’ve encountered numerous challenges relating to fire and building code interpretations and application. Beyond popular belief, the responsibility of a fire code official does not stop at insuring the safety of the public and minimizing property loss.

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In JRW Healthcare Article, health insurance expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Finally, we need to establish our teaching and training hospitals as places where new physicians are trained in providing appropriate, cost-effective care. Patients could be assured that our very best in research and training universities are committed to the treatment of everyday patients, not just the rare or exceptional cases. This ‘cream of the crop’ mentality would guarantee treatment by the very best and brightest, who could provide, develop and create leading edge treatments to help serve the entire medical community.

We need to redefine the role of public research universities to helping all Americans and all physicians find just what works and what doesn’t in the treatment of common illnesses. Let our research universities be at the forefront of establishing best practices and then let them lead by developing and implementing outcome-based medicine. Every public university that teaches and trains physicians would be called upon to look at local and regional methods of treatment and work closely with the medical community at large to find ways to be much better at prevention, provide effective treatments and realize data driven outcome results. We have the finest research universities in the world. Let’s use them as a tool to train our new physicians in being the best, most cost effective, efficient physicians that they can be.

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In THE REAL ESTATE CLIENT: VALUATION SERVES IMPORTANT MASTERS IN LITIGATION CASES, forensic accounting expert witness Richard M. Squar writes on fair market value:

The most prevalent standard of value, fair market value, has commanded a great deal of attention in valuation literature and court cases adjudicating valuation issues. In its simplest form, fair market value is defined by numerous court cases and IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60 as “…the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller when the former is not under any compulsion to buy and the latter is not under any compulsion to sell, both parties having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts.” Most business valuation opinions are made under the fair market value standard.

Fair value is a legally created standard of value that applies to certain specific transactions. In most states, fair value is the statutory standard of value applicable in cases of dissenting stockholders’ appraisal rights. It is also found in the dissolution statutes of those few states in which minority stockholders can trigger a corporate dissolution under certain circumstances, such as California Corporations Code Section 2000. The concept of fair value also appears in partnership dissolutions under minority oppression statutes in some states. It is critical that legal counsel work with the business valuation expert to determine the interpretation of fair value that is applicable, if at all, and one cannot assume that there is a definition that is clear and concise in all circumstances.

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In JRW Healthcare Article, managed care expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Fourth, we need to create a national risk pool for the insurance industry. Right now insurance companies do as much as they possibly can to minimize risk and control just who they insure. Financial incentives demand that health insurance companies behave just like auto insurance companies: find good risks with no pre-existing conditions and attempt to mediate that risk. By establishing a national risk pool (the FDIC would be an example to follow) we could make the following demands from the healthcare industry; guarantee issue to anyone, make health insurance portable (job to job, state to state), eliminate life-time limits and life-time maximums, and eliminate pre-existing conditions. By this simple step we create an industry where all patients can be managed by the law of large numbers.

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In JRW Healthcare Article, health care coverage expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Tort reform is the next step to take in helping straighten out our healthcare system. Currently, about 10% of our total healthcare expenditures are a result of “defensive medicine”, testing just in case there is a lawsuit filed. This amounts to over $210 Billion annually. Sadly, our President and the Democratic Party as a whole are handcuffed by their support from trial lawyers. Tort reform will not be an easy task because Congress is made up in overwhelming numbers by attorneys; but could be made easier if advanced by one of their own, namely the President.

Patients must do their part as well. Physicians do make mistakes; but, we must not punish the entire system by making physicians order every test and every procedure just in order to prevent unhappy and litigious patients. We need to think long and hard about limits on damages, punitive damages and the ease of lawsuits. We need to let physicians get on with the business of providing adequate, appropriate care to their patients without having to resort to the type of practice we have now where everything must be ruled out just because of the risk of lawsuits.

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In JRW Healthcare Article, medical insurance expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Secondly, we need to drastically increase the number of Family Physicians, General Internists, and General Pediatricians. Our ratio of Family Practice physicians to specialists runs about 30/70. We need to reverse that percentage with Family Medicine restored to its traditional place of dignity and importance.

Only 2% of this year’s medical students have chosen Family Medicine as their specialty. If you think waiting for an appointment is bad now, just add 45 million more people to the mix to find out just what the word ugly means. As baby boomers age (78 million of us now out of 330 million), the need for Family Medicine is more urgent than ever.

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In JRW Healthcare Article, health insurance expert witness Jon R. Wampler writes:

Both political parties continue to focus solely on the supply side of our healthcare problem. We really need to be looking at the demand side as well. Value over volume should be everyone’s chief focus, but this will require sacrifice from everyone; physicians, patients, insurance carriers and the uninsured. We simply cannot afford to give everyone everything, no matter what the President says. The numbers just don’t add up.

It is time for all Americans to take a deep breath and revisit what could be done to make our healthcare system more accessible to all, less expensive, provide wider coverage, improve health for average Americans and still allow the 1300 companies currently providing healthcare coverage to continue to do so.

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In 5 Things You Have To Do Before You Start Any Negotiation, sales expert Dr. Jim Anderson writes:

To help get you properly prepared for your next sales negotiation, I’ve got some suggestions. Here are five steps that you need to take before you sit down at the negotiating table:

# Deal With “No”: Arguably the word “no” is one of the most powerful words in the English language and it can stop any sales negotiator in his / her tracks if you aren’t prepared for it. Before the negotiation starts you need to assume that the other side is going to say “no” to every proposal that you make. Knowing this, you need to decide in advance how you are going to react when they say it.

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