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

The primary purpose of a citation is intellectual honesty — to attribute to other authors the ideas they have previously expressed, rather than give the appearance to the reader it is the author’s original ideas. The forms of citations generally subscribe to one of the generally accepted citations systems, such as the Harvard or APA (American Psychological Association). Both of these citation systems have their respective advantages and disadvantages relative to the tradeoffs of being informative but not too disruptive. In my opinion, the APA is generally acceptable for expert reports, but either would be completely acceptable.

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A twelve year old boy accused of killing his 5-week-old cousin, Millan Young, is on trial in Cobb County, Ga. “I believe it’s a homicide,” said Dr. Brian Frist, Cobb County’s chief medical examiner. “It is consistent with the child being held, shaken and eventually the head being struck against some hard object.” The medical expert witness said no medical condition could have caused all of the injuries he saw, and that if the baby had been this severely injured before being placed in the car, anyone would have noticed.

Autopsy photos show that the 6-pound, 9-ounce baby sustained two kinds of brain hemorrhages, retinal hemorrhages, bruises on her mouth and body, and unrelated fractures on opposite sides of her skull. The medical examiner said he believes the injuries weren’t accidental because they were so widespread.

For more, see tampabay.com.

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Two retired police officers who now testify as police procedures expert witnesses in officer-involved shooting cases say it appears Redding, CA, police were justified when they fired more than 30 rounds at a bank robbery suspect Monday. Richard Lichten, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s lieutenant who once shot and wounded a suspect with his service revolver, said: “It sounds like the officers were justified in firing their rounds. Cops don’t want to admit it, but you’re scared to death,” he said. “It’s a terrible, scary thing. There isn’t a cop around who wants to do this.”

The two independent experts offered their opinions after reading and watching video accounts on Redding.com of Monday’s fatal shooting of Brandon Michael Reuter, 20, of Los Gatos.

For more, see redding.com.

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The Connecticut state Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a Superior Court jury verdict awarding two black firefighters hundreds of thousands of dollars for their complaint that the city of New Haven unjustly denied them promotions based on their race. The unanimous decision, written by Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers, went against plaintiffs Lt. Christopher Texeira and retired Lt. John Brantley, who won the jury ruling in July 2005.

However, attorney Martyn Philpot Jr., who represents the two firefighters, cited testimony during the trial from economics expert witness Gerald Jaynes, a Yale professor of economic and African-American studies. According to Rogers’ ruling, Jaynes testified underfilling “favored white males because they were the greater portion of individuals who were, in fact, underfilled.”

For more, see nhregister.com.

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

The ISO 9001 standard contains requirements affecting virtually all aspects of any company. Because ISO 9001 is designed for any company of any size and in any industry, the requirements are rather broad and hard to read. The ISO 9001:2008 requirements fall into the following sections:

Section 1: Quality Management System. This section of the ISO 9001:2008 standard outlines the necessary steps to implement the ISO 9001 quality management system:

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

It is essential to recognize that each of various types of citations and reference listing styles has a specific format that must be followed. Loosely, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not necessarily the original source). More precisely, “a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression (e.g., [Example 79]) embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion at the spot where the citation appears” (Wikipedia, (Unknown). Retrieved Sept. 18, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation). Generally the combination of both the in-body citation and the bibliographic entry constitutes what is universally considered a citation.

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Dr. Scott Stanley, director of the Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California-Davis, encouraged officials at the Symposium on Racing and Gaming to gather all available data before prosecuting equine drug cases. Stanley encouraged them to use chemistry expert witnesses to successfully enforce drug policies.

The conference kicked off the Symposium on Racing and Gaming, presented by the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program this week in Tucson, Arizona.outlined various testing procedures. Equine toxicologist and pharmacologist George Maylin D.V.M. showed how blood tests can provide more information than urine tests while lawyer Ira Finkelstein, who handles equine law cases, addressed case preparation and evidence compilation.

For more, see thoroughbredtimes.com.

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Amednews.com reports on Maryland’s requirements for medical expert witnesses:

Maryland’s highest court upheld a tort reform measure requiring certain qualifications for expert witnesses in medical liability cases, a move physicians say will prevent plaintiffs from using so-called “hired guns” to bolster meritless lawsuits. The high court noted that its interpretation fell in line with other states with similar restrictions on expert witnesses, pointing to decisions in Kansas, North Carolina and Ohio.

Justices reversed a 2008 appeals court ruling allowing a French interventional neuroradiologist, Dr. Gerard Debrun, to testify as a plaintiff expert witness, though he had not practiced or seen patients since retiring in 2001, and most of his income came from serving as an expert witness. Appellate judges found that a majority of Dr. Debrun’s time was spent on other activities that were related to his field, including peer reviewing medical journals, reading, attending conferences and observing procedures.

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In When the Phone Rings … Twelve Questions for Prospective Expert Witness Assignments, insurance bad faith expert witness Kevin M. Quinley, CPCU, ARM, AIC, writes:

Consultants and expert witnesses are more used to answering questions than asking them. When the phone rings, there may be an attorney or prospective client on the other end of the line. He or she poses questions to the consultant or expert, trying to gauge whether there is a good “fit” between the client’s needs and what the practitioner can offer in the way of experience and expertise.

After answering prospective clients’ questions, effective consultants and expert witnesses may have some queries of their own. In fact, they should. Here are 12 questions that can form the basis of an effective fact-gathering process which unearths aspects of a case to help the consultant and expert witness gauge the degree of fit.

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Trucking expert witness V. Paul Herbert, C.P.S.A. of Western Motor Carrier Safety Institute, Inc. offers resources on his website including:

The FMCSA Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER)

System offers company safety data and related services to industry and the public over the Internet. Users can search FMCSA databases, register for a USDOT number, pay fines online, order company safety profiles, challenge FMCSA data using the DataQs system, access the Hazardous Material Route registry, obtain National Crash and Out of Service rates for Hazmat Permit Registration, get printable registration forms and find information about other FMCSA Information Systems.

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