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In Testimony From Experts In Demand Tyler Kekewich of the Financial Post describes expert witnesses:

You’ve seen them in movies and watched them on television. They are the superstars of a trial and their testimony can make or break a lawyer’s case. They’re expert witnesses — from coroners to accountants, engineers and scientists — and judges and juries hang on their every word. They can be the difference between acquittal or conviction or reaping a huge damage award versus being left with nothing but a big legal bill to pay.

Kekewich also shares the five traits of a successful expert witness:

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James Ziliak, director of the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, testified Tuesday as a nutrition expert witness before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in Washington, D.C. UKy.edu also reports Ziliak is expected:

… to provide expert witness testimony on hunger among senior citizens in America. During the testimony, Ziliak will deliver results of research he conducted with co-investigator Craig Gundersen of Iowa State University on the causes, consequences, and future of senior hunger.

The two recently completed a major research initiative funded by the Meals on Wheels Association of America Foundation and underwritten by Harrah’s Foundation. Ziliak is one of six invited witnesses who will speak before the committee. Other expert witnesses include officials from the U.S. Administration on Aging, Department of Agriculture, a volunteer with the Meals on Wheels program, and a representative of the Harrah’s Foundation

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Expert witness Dr. Douglas Zusman testified this week in the wrongful-death suit filed by John Ritter’s family. The cardiology expert witness said Ritter had a ‘lethal’ tear of the aorta. Zusman testified that Ritter was too far gone for the emergency surgery performed the night he died. Zusman has performed 8,000 surgeries on the aorta and described the procedure to repair a torn aorta, aortic dissection, as long and difficult.

Ledger.com reports that the lawsuit was filed against two doctors involved in the actor’s care, Dr. Joseph Lee, the cardiologist who treated him that night, and Dr. Matthew Lotysch, a radiologist who performed a body scan on Ritter two years earlier and allegedly did not discover an enlarged aorta.

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Gustov ‘Bud’ Clark, prosecution expert witness in the death of Francisco Javier Dominguez, testified on how Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett could have shot and killed the 22-year-old Mexican national. The law enforcement expert witness told jurors in federal court Friday about ‘sympathetic squeeze.’ The Arizona Department of Public Safety expert said it means if a gun is held in one hand, and the other grabs something, you’ll likely pull the trigger, as a reflex. Clark told jurors that in video training sessions with Border Patrol agents, when a scenario is presented where a suspected illegal entrant is holding a rock, the agents are trained to back up but nothing in the surveillance video indicates that Corbett backed away from Dominguez.

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In Jury Psychology Can Undermine Plaintiffs’ Expert Witnesses authors Neil Goldberg, John Freedenberg, Joseph Mooney, and Joseph Hanna write that cross examination of plaintiff’s expert witness should be geared to thwart the emotional hijacking of jurors that plaintiffs endeavor to secure. This strategy includes hiring a jury consultant expert witness. In this excerpt they write on anger management.

The adversarial legal system is dependent on the assumptin that decision makers are rational, unbiases, and not strongly predisposed. The plaintiffs’ bar recognizes that this paradigm can be altered by their trial strategy, which can benefit the plaintiff’s case mightily.

In recognition of this fact, the plaintiffs’ bar has developed aggressive discovery initiatives, questioning techniques, order of proof strategies and expert witnes presentations that, among other things, are geared towards capitalizing on the tarnished reputation of Corporate America.

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In Avoiding the Top 10 Mistakes with Distributor Agreements, Glen Balzer, management and forensic consultant and expert witness in domestic and international marketing and sales, shares a checklist of ten common mistakes to avoid when drafting your next distributor agreement. Mistake #6 is entitled Termination by Only One Party – Not Both.

Distributor agreements that allow for termination by only one partner are biased. Experience suggests that such lopsided agreements more frequently end in a legal dispute. By allowing both parties to terminate the agreement, some legal disputes can be avoided. The best distributor agreements allow either party to terminate the agreement.

Glen Balzer, President of New Era Consulting, can be reached at glen@neweraconsulting.com.

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In Jury Psychology Can Undermine Plaintiffs’ Expert Witnesses authors Neil Goldberg, John Freedenberg, Joseph Mooney, and Joseph Hanna write that cross examination of plaintiff’s expert witness should be geared to thwart the emotional hijacking of jurors that plaintiffs endeavor to secure. This strategy includes hiring a jury consultant expert witness. In this excerpt they explain the role of jurors in analyzing the credibility of expert witnesses:

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Excerpted from Jury Psychology Can Undermine Plaintiffs’ Expert Witnesses, For the Defense, December 2007.

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In Avoiding the Top 10 Mistakes with Distributor Agreements, Glen Balzer, management and forensic consultant and expert witness in domestic and international marketing and sales, shares a checklist of ten common mistakes to avoid when drafting your next distributor agreement. Mistake #5 is entitled Frequency of Price Changes

Distributors sometimes believe that they would have a competitive advantage if their manufacturers are restricted to adjusting prices only once per year. This may serve the distributor well, but at the expense of the supplier. An arbitrary advantage of one party over the other party does not bode well for the partnership.

During periods of inflation or other rising costs, the manufacturer must have the opportunity to pass along increases in cost. The marketplace disallows aggressive price increases. Allowing a manufacturer to increase prices upon 30-day notice eliminates one opportunity for conflict and reinforces the principle of fairness in the partnership.

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The San Franciso Bay Guardian reports:

An expert witness for the SF Weekly put a bunch of charts before the jury Friday, trying to undermine the Guardian’s predatory pricing case – but every one of the charts seemed to prove exactly what we’ve been trying to say.

The Guardian is suing the Weekly and its corporate parent, Village Voice Media, for predatory pricing. The claim is that the 16-paper chain poured millions into propping up the San Francisco paper, which for 12 years has lost money while it sold ads below the cost of producing them. That, we argue, was done to harm the locally owned competitor.

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In Avoiding the Top 10 Mistakes with Distributor Agreements, Glen Balzer, management and forensic consultant and expert witness in domestic and international marketing and sales, shares a checklist of ten common mistakes to avoid when drafting your next distributor agreement. Mistake #4 is entitled Exclusive or Nonexclusive.

Distributor franchises may be either exclusive, where there will be no other distributor franchised in the territory; or nonexclusive, where the new distributor might be one of several distributors franchised in the territory. Distributors sometimes make an appeal for an exclusive territory, arguing that without an exclusive territory, the distributor has no incentive to allocate adequate resources toward development of sales for the manufacturer. Once a supplier agrees to an exclusive territory, it forfeits the opportunity, for a period, to franchise an additional distributor. Assignment of an exclusive distributor in a territory represents an unnecessary leap of faith on the part of the supplier. One alternative to assigning an exclusive territory is to draft the distribution agreement in such a way that the distributor is nonexclusive, but to franchise only one distributor. A verbal understanding would suggest that if a supplier’s objectives were met, no additional distributor would be added to the nonexclusive territory. Such an arrangement provides encouragement for the distributor to perform without restricting options of the manufacturer.

Glen Balzer, President of New Era Consulting, can be reached at glen@neweraconsulting.com.