by

In The Need for Appraisals, appraisal expert witness Joel Forman of JLF Appraisal Services writes:

Starting in January 2011, the first wave of baby boomers will start retiring. For the next eighteen years, children born between 1946 and 1964 will be joining their older siblings and cousins to enjoy the golden years. Many individuals accumulated substantial estates. Some have impressive values. With both federal and state governments having dire cash flow problems, the need to have one’s affairs in order is more important than ever. JLF Appraisal Services is constantly amazed how many people don’t have wills, trusts or a DNR. When the courts are faced with an estate where the property owner died intestate, judges have been known to make arbitrary decisions that often go against the spoken wishes of the deceased. In addition, often there are constant family fights over the estate. This is especially true among the siblings, each person claiming the first right of refusal for all property.

As accredited appraisers, JLF Appraisal Services sees many estates that are ill-prepared for an orderly resolution. Most heirs have no idea what the estate properties are worth. More often than not, emotions overrule intellect. We highly that recommend individuals who are retired, or near retirement, work with their lawyers and tax consultants to ensure their wishes are followed. This is especially true when the will/trust specifies equitable distribution among the heirs, certain property donated to charity, and to trust funds for the future education of grandchildren and great grandchildren. The best way to get started, to ensure your wishes are followed, is to contact your attorney and financial advisor.

Continue reading

by

GMAC Inc. has appealed a federal jury’s November verdict that it pay $4 million in damages to Donald M. Mente, whose Kutztown auto dealerships GMAC suddenly shut down in July 2007. In federal court filings, GMAC is asking U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sanchez to order a new trial, arguing he improperly allowed Mente’s finance expert witnesses to testify at trial and improperly prohibited GMAC’s expert rebuttal witnesses.

In response, however, Mente’s attorneys said their witnesses were proper and GMAC missed several deadlines imposed by the judge to name its own expert witnesses. GMAC, once the auto-financing arm of General Motors Corp., now is a stand-alone bank offering many types of financing. On July 19, 2007, GMAC accused the dealerships – Mente Chevrolet in Richmond Township and Mente Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Maxatawny Township – of being in default to GMAC for the cars Mente bought from the automakers.

Rather than allow the dealerships to sell the cars at full price, GMAC immediately auctioned them off at reduced prices, causing the dealerships to go into foreclosure and 77 people to lose their jobs, according to trial testimony. The expert witnesses were used to summarize auto dealership financing practices and the value of the dealerships at that time.

Continue reading

by

Insurance expert William S. Custer, Ph.D. writes on a black hole in health insurance:

Many of my fellow boomers have lost jobs during the recession. But the chances of our landing a new position with good benefits appear as steep as winning a lottery. And we tend to have more health conditions than younger people. “They are the most vulnerable of the uninsured,” says the health insurance expert at at Georgia State University. This group has more health needs, he adds, and “if laid off, they have a harder time finding a similar job.”

“The individual insurance market has never been very good,” says Cheryl Matheis, an AARP senior vice president. “It has become increasingly discriminatory” as insurers cherry-pick only the healthiest individuals, Matheis adds. Reform will greatly help people 50 and older, she says, by eliminating these insurance company practices.

Continue reading

by

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

Section 4: Product Realization

The ISO 9001:2008 standard defines Product Realization as “that sequence of processes and sub processes required to achieve the product.” This is how your product is designed, produced, tested, handled, shipped, etc. This section also applies to service providers. Emphasis is placed on how the company understands, communicates and actually meets customer requirements. This section also contains various requirements for the design of products and for the planning of processes, projects and services.

Continue reading

by

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

There are many free citation builders available online; however, they do have limitations. They will often have available upgrades you can pay to obtain. Citation builders assure correct formatting of Harvard, APA and other citation formats. One such citation builder is SourceAid (Source Aid, (Unknown). Retrieved Sept. 18, 2009, from http://sourceaid.com Citation Builder Form). SourceAid has a free version and upgrades at an additional cost and are available on a term basis of two weeks, three months and one year.

Your client’s case is important and your credibility and integrity as an expert witness in your specialty are vital to your client and your career. Always cite your sources correctly and professionally, eliminating any doubt as to your credibility and integrity, and the accuracy of your expert report.

by

The trial of Fulton County, OH, alleged arsonist Charles Bryan Jr. will be continued until March 9, 2010, and a change of venue may be sought, attorney Jerome Phillips says. Discovery materials the defense team received from the county prosecutor’s office in October require Phillips to obtain an expert witness dealing with arson. The defense may also have to find a forensic accounting expert for related accounting issues. Phillips had argued that the requirement made the trial’s original starting date of Jan. 11, 2010, unrealistic, since expert witnesses have yet to be retained by the defense.

Bryan was indicted in August on 14 counts related to the April 2007 downtown Wauseon fire, including arson, aggravated arson and insurance fraud. If found guilty on all charges he could face a maximum sentence of more than 46 years in prison and fines totaling up to $115,000.

For more, see foxtoledo.com.

by

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

by

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.

by

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.

Continue reading

by

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).