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In Managing the Risky Business of Company E-mail Part1 internet expert witness Scott Greene writes that his company has documented, during the examination of electronic systems, employees who frequently say/save things into e-mails or store on a computer, things they would never say anywhere else.

Either having an employee delete a potentially damaging or inflammatory e-mail or even an employee deleting an e-mail on their own, does not protect anyone. In fact, it could in the end harm everyone involved.

If a complaint or inappropriate conduct of an employee has risen to the level where you as an owner/supervisor, need to consult a Computer and Technology Forensics expert, one of the first areas checked is for deleted documents and/or e-mails. These items cause red flags during an examination of equipment, and the original items can and most likely will be found and/or reconstructed. It is very important to understand that the intentional destruction of evidence is a felony, and if proven, could land one in jail.

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Expert witnesses are used in a wide range of litigation and their opinions are often viewed as critical, yet few attorneys take the time to utilize the proper resources to find the right experts, evaluate their credentials, and/or assess the admissibility of their testimony. For example, one step in researching a forensic engineering expert witness thoroughly is to find articles they have written. Here are some sources:

Over ten million full-text articles covering a wide variety of subjects and dating back to 1998 can be found at BNET’s FindArticles.com. For example, a search for “forensic engineering expert” returned 517 results as of this date. Some expert witness directories such as JurisPro provide free access to articles written by experts. Many trade associations publish online newsletters and some provide either full-text or extracts from articles.

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In Continental Valuations News, real estate valuation expert witness Robert D. Domini, MBA, MAI, writes:

Not only is there a natural fallout from an auto recession, but this time around the domestic auto companies have run out of money, although Ford has survived so far without Government funds. GM and Chrysler are being forced to close dealerships. GM is shedding divisions as we speak.

Commercial real estate owners are facing a double whammy. They are not only fighting higher vacancy, lower rents and higher cap rates, but they are also facing restricted debt options. As the economy continues to shed jobs at a rate of 650,000 to 700,000 per month, investors will face ever greater challenges. According to Deutsche Bank, the conduit lenders are facing 3.5% delinquency and expect the figure to reach 6% by the end of the year. The peak rate during the early 90s was in the 6% to 7% range. So, with 5-year rollovers coming due, investors face much tighter underwriting standards amidst declining prices, cash flow, rents, etc.

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Expert witnesses are used in a wide range of litigation and their opinions are often viewed as critical, yet few attorneys take the time to utilize the proper resources to find the right experts and evaluate their credentials. Researching the product at issue, e.g. bicycles, will facilitate hiring the right expert witness.

Information about companies and products can be found at the ThomasNet® site (formerly known as Thomas Register®), which has gathered company information from registrations of companies in its “industrial buying guides.” This free online directory provides access to over 600,000 industrial companies, indexed by 70,000 product and service categories. After a free registration, one can search for a product, service, brand name or company name. For example, a search for “bicycle pumps” leads to profiles for manufacturers, including each company’s description, its mailing address, phone number, fax number, website address(es), amount of assets, employees and the name of the parent company.

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A. David Tammelleo, JD, a nationally recognized authority on health care law, writes in A Suit For Medical Malpractice Can Stand Or Fall On The Testimony Of Expert Medical Witness For Either A Plaintiff Or A Defendant that few cases would illustrate this better than the Missouri case in which the plaintiffs’ expert medical witness completely failed to even come close to testifying as to what the applicable standard of care, which the defendant physician and the hospital that employed him were expected to meet.

Not only must both plaintiffs and defendants obtain expert medical witnesses have sterling credentials so that they are eminently qualified to testify as expert medical witnesses, but first and foremost, they must be prepared to state clearly and unequivocally what the applicable standard of care to which a physician accused of medical malpractice is alleged to have breached and that the breach of that standard was, to the appropriate degree of medical certainty, the direct and proximate cause of the alleged victim’s injuries, pain, and suffering for which the plaintiff is bringing suit. In this case, the plaintiffs’ expert witness failed to testify as to what the applicable standard of care was, ensuring the dismissal of the case.

For more, see Medical Law’s Regan Report, June, 2007 by Tammelleo, A. David

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In Managing the Risky Business of Company E-mail Part1 internet expert witness Scott Greene, CEO of Evidence Solutions, Inc., writes:

As an employer, Human Resources Director, or Risk Management Supervisor, ask yourself this question: “Do our employees think about the legal risk of sending communications over the internet?” If you are like the majority of companies, your answer would be, “It is highly improbable”. It is a very common problem amid the work place, for an employee to believe their electronic communications are transient, temporary and, once deleted, untraceable and therefore, harmless.

The fact is e-mail, faxes and even cellular phones leave a trace. Just one e-mail sent from your employee to the employee of a different company passes through an average of four different computer systems. This creates a trail making e-mail real, traceable, and permanent.

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A forensic engineering expert witness investigates materials, products, structures or components that fail or do not function as intended which may cause personal injury or damage to property. The consequences of failure are dealt with by the law of product liability. The subject is applied most commonly in civil law cases, although may be of use in criminal law cases. Generally the purpose of a forensic engineering investigation is to locate cause or causes of failure with a view to improve performance or life of a component, or to assist a court in determining the facts of an accident.

Methods used in forensic investigations include reverse engineering, inspection of witness statements, a working knowledge of current standards, as well as examination of the failed component itself.

Excerpted from wikipedia.com.

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Document examination expert witness Ronald N. Morris is a certified forensic document examiner and in this excerpt from Submitting a Handwriting Case for Examination, he writes on working with copies:

The best evidence for examination purposes is always the original document, but frequently only a photocopy is available. If it is necessary to examine a photocopy, the best copy for examination purposes is one made from the original document and not a copy of a copy.

Photocopies typically do not reveal all the evidence found on the original document or document being copied, i.e., significant quality and features of the writing, indentations, outlines, feather strokes, pen stops, alterations, etc. A photocopy can also contain artifacts not on the original. These artifacts may be dirt, dried white-out, or scratches on the glass. There may also be defects on the machine’s drum, or some other cause.

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Chemistry expert witness Edward Funk, Ph. D., presented this short course to senior level chemical engineers on patents:

Fourth, the MOI should stand on its own for judgment. Some inventors include a section on the planned experiments to help define the invention. This often leads to the memo receiving a low rating and held for the next patent committee meeting. The MOI should be written when there is sufficient data or the concept is sufficiently complete for an evaluation.

At most companies, a highly rated MOI has been carefully “lobbied” by the inventor.

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Eli Lilly & Co. won in a ruling to prevent a “critical” pharmacology expert witness from testifying on behalf of plaintiffs in cases involving the company’s Zyprexa drug. Bloomsberg.com reports:

U.S. District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein in Brooklyn, New York, said he will exclude the expert testimony of Dr. Stephen Hamburger. The doctor has offered testimony in some 20 individual Zyprexa cases, seven of which now have pending summary judgment motions before Weinstein, the judge said in a decision issued yesterday.

The Indianapolis-based drugmaker had moved to prevent Hamburger from testifying as an expert witness in the cases. Zyprexa is approved to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The plaintiffs claim Lilly urged doctors to prescribe Zyprexa for uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.