Expert Witness Blog

Business valuation expert witness Dr. Kamin bases his philosophy on the teaching of Professor Merton Miller of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 1990 Nobel Prize in economics for his pioneering work in the economic theory of valuation and corporate finance. Dr. Kamin writes:

Professor Miller’s teaching has imbued the entire field of business valuation for both public and private companies. His teaching led to the phrase “free cash flow” to describe the source of the economic benefit to shareholders that is the basis for attribution of value to share ownership. Free cash flow is the cash withdrawable from a business after allowing for capital needed for reinvestment to support the firm’s growth opportunities.

Professor Miller’s premise is that the only economically rational basis for valuing a business enterprise is the aggregate current value of all future free cash flows distributable by the firm. Each future year’s cash flow has a present price per dollar that reflects the time-value of money and the compensation for risk bearing to the future date. The economically rational value of the business firm is then the price per dollar of each year’s future free cash flow multiplied by the number of dollars of future free cash flow summed up over all the future years in which free cash flow is expected to be generated.

Human factors, a specialty of psychology and industrial engineering, focuses on the efficiency, safety, and comfort of things that people interact with at work or leisure. Human factors expert witness Dr. Robert C. Sugarman writes:

Typical forensic applications of human factors expertise are answering questions about human abilities and limitations for attention, memory, motivation, perception, movement, and strength. These questions often come up in the context of auto accidents, slip and fall, warnings and labels inadequacy, and industrial accidents. An area that is rapidly gaining attention is medical accidents, especially caused by device design errors.

A question posed to me during an industrial accident trial early in my career made me think about what we can know about another person. I was asked, “Don’t people have an obligation to protect themselves from danger?” I answered that the question is more a matter of philosophy and not within the domain of human factors. If people always protected themselves as a matter of obligation, no one would take on a job that was not inherently safe. That would include almost every occupation we depend on for our well being.

Expert witness R. Craig Jerner describes metallurgical failure analysis in automobile accidents. “When an automobile accident happens, the question frequently arises did the wheel, axle, steering, spring, bolts, frames, brackets, or screws fail causing the accident, or did the impact forces of the accident cause the failed/broken component to break. Metallurgical failure analysis and/or root cause analysis is often required to provide the answer.”

Jerner describes a pickup rollover accident and his failure analysis expert witness findings:

The right rear wheel of a pickup was found nearby the vehicle after a rollover accident. The “mag wheel” failed in the spokes and welded spoke attachment feet. Two other “mag” wheels on the subject pickup were also observed to be fractured. Did the wheel loss cause the rollover or was the wheel loss a result of the rollover?

ConnectU founders accused Facebook (a social networking website originally developed for college students) Mark Zuckerberg and his original crew of pilfering their profitable idea in 2003 when they were all Harvard students. Facebook filed a countersuit, accusing ConnectU of unfair business practices. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Will it be in the millions? In the meantime, all motions in the case against ConnectU have been terminated.
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Semiconductors expert witnesses can write reports and opine on the following information excerpted from Micron.com:

Memory chips have been called the crude oil of the twenty-first century. They are used in a wide variety of electronic applications from children’s toys to sophisticated communication satellites. The current generation of memory chip (64 Mb) is capable of storing 3,355 pages of text on a piece of about the size of a dime.

A number of elements are classified as semiconductors including silicon, zinc, and germanium. These elements have the ability to conduct electrical current, and they can be regulated in the amount of their conductivity. Silicon is the most widely used semiconductor material because it is easily obtained.

Steven J. Milloy, founder and publisher of JunkScience.com, is also a columnist for FoxNews.com. Milloy has testified as a chemical expert witness on risk assessment and Superfund before the U.S. Congress.

He writes:

Food riots caused by rising food prices have erupted around the world. Five people died in riots in Haiti — perhaps the first of many casualties yet to come from the current fad of being “green.” Food riots also broke out in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Ethiopia. The military is being deployed in Pakistan and Thailand to protect fields and warehouses. Higher energy costs and policies promoting the use of biofuels like ethanol are being blamed.

Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs’ has filed a lawsuit challenging the DOE’s approval to begin experiments with deadly pathogens such as live anthrax, plague and Q fever in a portable Biosafety Level-3 (BSL-3) facility that includes three internal labs… Operations at the Livermore BSL-3 will include genetic modification of bio-weapon agents, raising the possibility that novel, uniquely lethal pathogens will result. Aerosol expert witnesses will no doubt be called to opine on the facility’s plan to conduct aerosol (spray) experiments. TriVallycares.com reports:

Genetically manipulating organisms and creating aerosols are two activities that have “dual use,” meaning they can be associated with offensive as well as defensive bio-warfare research. Tri-Valley CAREs and independent experts believe that conducting this research at a classified DOE lab whose mission is the development of nuclear weapons threatens the Biological Weapons Convention, the treaty banning bio-weapons to which the U.S. is a signatory.

Building codes expert witnesses will no doubt be called in the lawsuit which the city of Minneapolis and three north Minneapolis neighborhoods filed against TJ Waconia. Plaintiffs say Waconia’s practices left many homeowners unable to sell their homes or owing significantly more for their homes than they are worth which worsened the foreclosure crisis in Minneapolis.
“The foreclosures and vacated dwellings resulting from TJ Waconia have caused damage to the City including increased costs for inspection of buildings for code violations, boarding vacant buildings, providing increased police and fire protection, acquiring and rehabilitating vacant buildings, and providing maintenance such as garbage removal and weed-cutting,” said north Minneapolis Council Member Don Samuels (Ward 5). “We deserve redress for these costs.”

Robotics uses intelligent machines and systems in space exploration, human services, and manufacturing. A robotics expert witness can opine on the design and implementation of intelligent machines which do work too dirty, too dangerous, too precise, or too tedious for humans. Intelligent machines have applications in medicine, defense, space and underwater exploration, service industries, disaster relief, manufacturing and assembly and entertainment.

Just for fun, see Monty Does the Dishes http://anybots.com/videos.html

A suicide expert witness can explain causes of murder-suicde to a jury. The motivation for the murder in murder-suicide can be purely criminal in nature or be perceived by the perpetrator as an act of care for loved ones in the context of severe depression. The severely depressed person may see the world as a terrible place and can feel that they are helping those they care about by removing them from it. Thoughts like this are generally regarded as a medical emergency requiring suicide intervention.

Since crime just prior to suicide is often perceived as being without consequences, it is not uncommon for suicide to be linked with homicide. Motivations may range from guilt to evading punishment, insanity, part of a suicide pact, or exacting revenge on those whom they feel are responsible.