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The role of a medical expert witness needs to be strictly defined and carefully controlled during legal proceedings and physicians need to be aware of their role, states an analysis of the Goudge Inquiry into pediatric forensic pathology published http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj090833.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca.

The Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology by Justice Stephen Goudge looked into the flawed expert testimony of Ontario pathologist Dr. Charles Smith which has been linked to several miscarriages of justice, including the wrongful conviction of Sherry Sherret-Robinson that was overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal in December 2009.

Source: eurekalert.org

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Attorneys for an anti-illegal immigration organization are challenging a Texas state law that allows illegal immigrant students to attend colleges and universities at in-state rates, saying it violates federal law. David A. Rogers, a lawyer for the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas, an organization that opposes illegal immigration, said the lawsuit filed on Monday in Harris County District Court marks the first direct court challenge of the Texas law. Texas is one of 10 states in the nation that have laws offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria, including graduating from a local high school and pledging to legalize their immigration status as soon as possible.

Education expert witness Michael A. Olivas, a University of Houston law professor who specializes in higher education and immigration issues, said that the lawsuit filed Monday was based on a flawed reading of federal statutes and the Texas residency law. “The state can, and did act properly, and the statute is constitutional,” said Olivas, who also served as an expert witness when a similar law was later challenged in Kansas.

For more, see chron.com.

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Professional engineering expert witnesses may opine on ISO 9000. Here is a summary of ISO9000 from the ISO9000 Council.

Section 3: Resource Management

This section of ISO 9001:2008 clarifies the requirement for a company to determine and provide, in a timely manner, resources (for example, equipment, facilities, etc) needed to implement and improve the processes of the ISO 9001 quality management system and to address customer satisfaction. This section also includes requirements for employee training, as well as for the physical facilities and the work environment.

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In Citations and Your Credibility, construction site expert witness William Gulya, Jr., President & CEO, Middlesex Trenching Company writes:

Perhaps the most efficient format for referencing documents and evidence is the Bates Stamp. Bates numbering is commonly used as an organizational method to label and identify legal documents. During the discovery phase of litigation, a large number of documents might necessitate the use of unique identifiers for each page of each document for reference and retrieval. Bates numbering (named for the Bates automatic numbering machine) assigns an arbitrary unique identifier to each page. The “numbering” may be solely numeric or may contain a combination of letters and numbers (alphanumeric), for example, (Bates #XYZ000123).

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National Medical Consultants represents a panel of over 1900 distinguished specialists in all areas of medicine including podiatry expert witnesses. In Medical malpractice liability reform-no easy task experts at National Medical Consultants write:

Joint and several liability

A third strategy that states frequently employ to reform their medical liability system is to modify another legal doctrine, joint and several liability, which is common to cases in which more than one person caused the harm. The joint and several liability doctrine permits holding a single defendant responsible for the entire damage versus being held responsible for the percentage of the damages that can be reasonably attributed to them.A number of states have modified this doctrine by separating joint liability from several liability, thus establishing a mechanism of proportionately assigning harm among the defendants.

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National Medical Consultants represents a panel of over 1900 distinguished specialists in all areas of medicine including brain injury expert witnesses. In Medical malpractice liability reform-no easy task experts at National Medical Consultants write:

Although they are popular in the medical malpractice reform arena, damage caps are not without their critics. Opponents of damage caps, including attorneys and patient rights and safety organizations, contend that damage caps penalize the most seriously Injured patients while reducing health care providers’ accountability for negligent acts.

Modifying the collateral source rule. A second approach to medical liability reform that a number of states adopt is modifying the collateral source rule. Intact, the collateral source rule prohibits defendants from introducing information at trial or during negotiation for the purpose of off setting the damages awarded by asserting that the plaintiff may have received compensation from another source (e.g. worker’s compensation, another Insurer).

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National Medical Consultants represents a panel of over 1900 distinguished specialists in all areas of medicine including nursing expert witnesses. In Medical malpractice liability reform-no easy task experts at National Medical Consultants write:

For example, Alaska, California, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Texas, and West Virginia laws prohibit a patient from receiving more than $250,000 for noneconomic damages. One rationale behind noneconomic damage caps is that because such damages are extremely difficult to quantify, a jury often will inflate the award to the injured patient. In turn, such awards are believed to increase the costs associated with medical malpractice insurance (eg, increased medical insurance premiums that then create increased health care costs).

Other states, including Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Virginia, have laws that apply in all injury-related cases, medical liability Included, that cap the monetary amount that an injured patient can receive for all damages, both economic (eg, lost wages) and noneconomic. Further, a number of states have adopted laws that restrict the amount of and the conditions under which monetary damages are awarded to punish the health care provider for a “wanton disregard of [patient] safety” (ie, punitive damages).

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Dr. Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiologist and pharmacologist at the University Of Massachusetts Medical Center, was hired by the state of Ohio as an expert witness in litigation against the state regarding the death penalty. The state asked the anesthesiology expert witness to prepare a declaration that could be filed in court explaining that the single injection would work and would be painless and fast.

The state opted for a change after a failed attempt to execute Romell Broom with a three-drug cocktail. Although the country is watching closely, for now no other states have changed their method of lethal injection. Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia are among those who say they will continue using the three-drug method.

For more, see spotlight.vitals.com.

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Financial planning expert witnesses may opine on Antenuptial Agreements defined here by the Association of Divorce Financial Planners, Inc.:

ANTENUPTIAL AGREEMENT – a legal contract signed by two people prior to marriage which states limitations to spouse’s rights to property, support, or inheritance if the marriage ends in divorce.

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Podiatric medicine expert witness Dr. Douglas E. Stabile writes on two of the top foot problems:

Heel spurs – growths of bone on the underside, forepart of the heel bone. Heel spurs occur when the plantar tendon pulls at its attachment to the heel bone. This area of the heel can later calcify to form a spur. With proper warm-up and the use of appropriate athletic shoes, strain to the ligament can be reduced.

Neuromas – enlarged benign growths of nerves, most commonly between the third and fourth toes. They are caused by tissue rubbing against and irritating the nerves. Pressure from ill-fitting shoes or abnormal bone structure can also lead to this condition. Treatments include orthoses (shoe inserts) and/or cortisone injections, but surgical removal of the growth is sometimes necessary.