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The Massashusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board opened hearings on Wednesday into the request by Cape Win Associates LLC for a composite permit for transmission lines that carry approvals on five state and four local permits. If Cape Wind secures the remaining permits and the almost inevitable legal challenge, the company will get to build its 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound.

The composite permit, if approved by the siting board, would allow the long-delayed wind turbine project to collapse whatever further wait is involved in obtaining the state and local permits.The company presented two expert witnesses: Craig Olmsted, the vice president for project development at Energy Management Corp. and the Cape Wind project manager, and Christopher Rein, senior vice president and principal of ESS Group, the lead environmental consultant on the wind farm project.

Excerpted from CapeCodToday.

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In Determining When Your Medical Malpractice Case Has Merit, expert witness Barry E. Gustin, MD, MPH, FAAEM, and primary founder of the American College of Forensic Medicine, writes on strategy in medical negligence cases.

To summarize … consider not taking medical negligence cases in the following instances:

1. The medical issues are complex. The more complex the medical issues, the more difficult it will be to convince the jury that the doctor committed malpractice. If a case involves multiple physicians, some of whom committed no negligent acts, it may be exceedingly difficult to separate out the truly negligent care. Jurors may view this kind of lawsuit as an unwarranted attack on everyone. Plus the more doctors who are involved, the more costly the undertaking, in terms of obtaining more medical experts.

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Former paratroopers argued before New York Justice Henry Kron this week that Specialist Osvaldo Hernandez deserved to have his civil rights restored. Hernandez served a year on Rikers Island for illegal gun possession before joining the Army and serving a 15-month tour in Afghanistan. Hernandez hopes to join the New York police force.

His lawyer, James D. Harmon Jr., a former prosecutor who served in Vietnam and their expert witness, Randy Jergensen, a retired New York police detective who parachuted into battle in Korea, testified on behalf of Hernanez. They believe that his service in the army and certificate of good conduct from the parole board remove any legal barriers to Mr. Hernandez’s joining the police force. The decision is now up to police officials, who have said that the city’s administrative code forbids hiring anyone with a felony conviction as a police officer.

Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick of the Army Recruiting Command says the Army has accepted 372 felons this year as of October 10, down from 511 last year. A recent military study showed that such recruits were promoted faster, were more likely to re-enlist, and received more awards.

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In Determining When Your Medical Malpractice Case Has Merit, expert witness Barry E. Gustin, MD, MPH, FAAEM, and primary founder of the American College of Forensic Medicine, writes on strategy in the medical negligence case.

Two objective case analyses are touted by many seasoned medical malpractice litigators as the judicious approach to working up a potential case. When the two reviews are in concordance, you will be on solid footing and well on your way to maximizing your chances for a successful outcome. If there is a discrepancy between the two reviews, then it will be easier for you to understand the weaknesses of your case. The knowledge you attain in this way will help you to decide whether you want to drop, or stay with the case. The costs for the in-depth medical expert record review and analysis should be in the neighborhood of $1000 to $2000 per medical expert; again depending on the volume of records, complexity of the case, and the specialty of the medical expert doing the record review.

Case review is both a science and an art. The physician reviewer must be adroit at dissecting out the critical facts and determining whether or not the appropriate standards of practice were breached. Moreover, the reviewer must decide whether issues of causation clearly reinforce any alleged departures from the standard of care. Attention must also be given to damages. The issues can be quite complex. Are the injuries or disabilities due to malpractice or are they a maloccurrence, an unfortunate bad outcome that could not have been prevented?

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Even if you’ve been lucky and avoided tickets for years, being pulled over for speeding or drunken driving could cost you plenty. Fines, legal fees, and hiring an expert witness can add up to a “financial mugging.” In First-time driving offenders don’t get off easy , AOLautos writes on how a DUI can also affect your reputation:

If you are a professional — a doctor, an attorney, a stock broker, pilot, a teacher, even a politician these days — a DUI arrest, not to mention a conviction, is most certain to affect your reputation, your standing in the community or group to which you belong, and even your professional credentials.

Even if you are just the third cubicle on the right at the travel agency, produce manager of Safeway #376 or third camera assistant on the local TV news, your career track now has a speed bump in it, a DUI on your record that can stay there for years, potentially and/or actually damaging your chances for advancement and/or qualifying for a better job at another organization.

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In Determining When Your Medical Malpractice Case Has Merit, expert witness Barry E. Gustin, MD, MPH, FAAEM, and primary founder of the American College of Forensic Medicine, writes on strategy in the medical negligence case.

It has been said that a little knowledge can be dangerous. Nowhere is this more obvious than in medical negligence case analysis. The quality , credibility, and scope of the record analysis will only be as good as the reviewing individual(s). Bottom line: Choose reviewers wisely; pay appropriately. Typical costs for detailed initial case screening average $500 to $1000 depending on the size of medical records, complexity of the case, and the specialty of the reviewing physician.

Cases that are deemed provisionally meritorious should be sent for a second review by medical experts identified by the screening physicians, who are prepared to give oral testimony if called upon. Careful attention should be given to determining who the medical experts should be. Ideally, a physician consultant experienced in medical-legal matters should assist you in the identification of the appropriate medical specialists. This person can “talk shop” with the potential expert and be in a better position to decide whether any given medical expert is the right person for the case. By analogy, you, as an attorney, would be in a much better position than a layperson to recommend another reputable and successful attorney in a specific legal specialty area. Thus, it makes good sense to establish a relationship with a physician consultant experienced in medical-legal case analysis.

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Franchise executive Don Sniegowski comments on the franchise case study by attorney Bruce Schaeffer in which Schaeffer concludes that one of the weakest links in franchisee court cases is often their own expert’s testimony.

In Challenges to the Admissibility of Expert Financial Testimony, attorney Bruce Schaeffer followed all federal and state cases involving the admissibility of expert financial testimony from 2005 through 2008. He discovered that challenges involving expert witnesses were successful some 57% of the time, meaning that only 43% of of proposed experts were allowed to testify. And, when expert testimony is successfully challenged, it almost always means the franchisee’s case will fail.

According to Schaeffer, the key point in a franchise dispute is to prove damages. For that, a franchisee needs an expert. But their proposed witness will never make it to the stand if he cannot get by the Daubert test, named after the U.S. Supreme Court case that determined that for expert testimony to be admissible, it must meet a minimum “threshold” level of credibility, namely:

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In Determining When Your Medical Malpractice Case Has Merit, expert witness Barry E. Gustin, MD, MPH, FAAEM, and primary founder of the American College of Forensic Medicine, writes that “To accept or reject a medical negligence case: this is the single most important decision you will make when processing a medical negligence case.” Choosing unwisely, either a case with good potential will be lost or an unmeritorious case will tie you up for long periods of time resulting in great expense.

To make an informed decision about accepting a case, you must have the facts, not only those you obtain from your client, but more importantly, those obtained from qualified medical experts after a thorough review of the medical records.

It is not enough to have medical records reviewed by just anyone. Medical records should be screened by those specially capable of understanding and identifying all medical-legal issues. These individuals should be experienced in medical-legal analysis and board-certified in the medical specialty where the alleged negligence occurred. Even better, the medical records can be reviewed in a collaborative setting, where the records are screened by one board-certified physician who then confers with other medical specialists to form consensus opinions.

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Even if you’ve been lucky and avoided tickets for years, being pulled over for speeding or drunken driving could cost you plenty. In First-time driving offenders don’t get off easy , AOLautos writes:

The car insurance companies are in business to avoid loss, and drunken drivers, or those arrested for DUI, represent potential profit drains. Your automobile liability insurance costs — mandatory just about everywhere — could, according to experts, double, triple or even quadruple because of a DUI, especially a DUI with a high BAC.

Even if you are capable of paying a bank-breaking new tariff, you might still lose your insurance since a number of major insurance companies are ridding their files of drivers they see as risky and can drop your coverage even if you are found not guilty.

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Even if you’ve been lucky and avoided tickets for years, being pulled over for speeding or drunken driving could cost you plenty. Fines, legal fees, and hiring an expert witness can add up to a “financial mugging.” In First-time driving offenders don’t get off easy , AOLautos writes:

Speeding fines and penalties are, excuse the expression, all over the map; how fast you were going or where you were speeding (school zone or construction zone for example) and whether you are a first-time offender all factor in. More than half the states use a points system to record driver infraction data — the more points, the higher the fines and possible jail terms.

Although Forbes Magazine reports that the national median for a first-time offender’s fine is $200, many states are quite entrepreneurial in their penalties for first-time speeding-related offenses:

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