by

In 2004 Clinton San Francisco and his wife, Jessie, sued Wendy’s over what they said was a bad hamburger bought in Charleston. In 2006 Kanawha Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib said the doctor who treated Clinton and a food expert witness were not qualified to serve as experts in the case under state trial rules but the State Supreme Court justices handed down a recent decision saying that a jury can hear the expert witness testimony and decide whether or not it’s credible.

The Charleston Daily Mail also reports:

Chief Justice Robin Davis said in a separately written opinion that she hoped the state’s lower courts would take heed of the San Francisco decision.

Continue reading

by

The Georgia Supreme Court decided last week in favor of tighter expert witness rules. Their 5-2 decision on the SB 3 provision (O.C.G.A. ยง 24-9-67.1(c)), is a rare defense victory in the state. Atlanta defense lawyer R. Page Powell Jr. says the state Supreme Court’s ruling is “a very fair, very reasonable threshold requirement for expert competency.” The ruling says that medical malpractice expert witnesses must have “actual professional knowledge and experience in the area of practice or specialty in which the opinion is to be given.” The Daily Report also writes:

The court hasn’t decided an unrelated state Supreme Court appeal, Mason v. Home Depot, S07A1486, challenging another part of the law establishing a more general rule that tightens standards for admission of expert testimony in all civil cases. That rule is sometimes known as the Daubert rule for the 1993 U.S. Supreme Court case to which federal rule makers responded in crafting a similar, but not identical, rule of evidence.

by

In Utilizing Experts In An Expert Way, Kelli Hinson and Tesa Hinkley describe the crucial role expert witnesses have at trial and give advice on how best to use them. In this excerpt, Hinson and Hinkley give tips on ensuring that testimony is based on science.

Contrary to what many believe, expert testimony in litigation is not always based on rigorous quantitative analysis of the data involved in a case. Too often, we hve seen experts provide analysis that does not scientifically demonstrate the validity of their claims.

For example, we were recently contacted by a lawyer seeking an industry expert who could opine on the impact that a particular song on a CD had in influencing sales of that CD. We stressed that the question should be addressed in a scientifically rigourous way, and therefore the client decided to retain an economist. The plaintiff side retained an industry expert who formulated an opinion based solely on her experience, not on science. Her testimony was stricken on a Daubert challenge and consequently the plaintiff could not present damages testimony at trial.

Continue reading

by

WebWire writes that computer forensic expert witnesses:

…deal with some of the most grave and serious of criminal cases that involve digital evidence. However it may be surprising to hear that currently there is no regulatory body to ensure the quality of their work, their security, and the expert’s individual’s background.

It is a different case for those forensic companies who work for prosecuting bodies such as police forces and law enforcement agencies, as they are normally independently regulated by the instructing body and undergo rigorous vetting. Forensic companies working solely for the defence however, have the same access to the same evidence involved in these cases, yet nobody is actively monitoring their activities. In theory a one man band with a computer and the appropriate software could take on criminal defence cases which range from fraud, terrorism and drugs offences, to indecent images of children and grooming charges.

Continue reading

by

In Utilizing Experts In An Expert Way, Kelli Hinson and Tesa Hinkley describe the crucial role expert witnesses have at trial and give advice on how best to use them. In this excerpt, Hinson and Hinkley give tips on ensuring an effective audit process.

Extensive work goes into producing reports in litigation. The case team supporting the experts should have an audit process in place that ensures that all analyses were performed correctly and that factual statements can be verified from orignial source documents. In addition, the audit process should make certain that no information in the report is the result of only one person’s input or review.

Excerpted from the ABA Expert Witness Alert, Summer/Fall 2007

by

In Utilizing Experts In An Expert Way, Kelli Hinson and Tesa Hinkley describe the crucial role expert witnesses have at trial and give advice on how best to use them. In this excerpt, Hinson and Hinkley give tips on agreeing on an outline and defining the scope of the analysis.

Experts can often help attorneys better define the questions that will advance their case, as well. From an expert’s standpoint, the goal is to define questions that are sufficiently narrow to fall within his or her specialty, while also being broad enough to be useful to the client. Some experts are comfortable defining an expansive scope of research, whereas ohters prefer defining a narrow scope. Equally important as defining the questions effectively is defining them early. The expert and their support team should discuss the questions as soon as practicable, and the attorneys should provide their insights to get the team headed in the right direction with the right information. This significantly reduces the likelihood of spending time on research that ultimately does not become part of the expert’s opinion.

Excerpted from the ABA Expert Witness Alert, Summer/Fall 2007

by

In Utilizing Experts In An Expert Way, Kelli Hinson and Tesa Hinkley describe the crucial role expert witnesses have at trial and give advice on how best to use them. In this excerpt, Hinson and Hinkley give tips on agreeing on an outline and defining the scope of the analysis.

In some cases, a significant initial stumbling block is defining the question or questions you want the experts to address. Choosing the right questions and establishing the scope of the analysis have obvious implications for your budget; they are also relevant to determining how many experts you retain. Experts may be helpful in guiding you on which questions they think they can answer. Expect the outline to change over time, but ensure that the experts do not stray from their area of expertise. While experts should provide the most rigourous analysis of the facts of the case, they should also know when certain matters are better addressed by other witnesses, be they fact witnesses or experts in other areas.

Excerpted from the ABA Expert Witness Alert, Summer/Fall 2007

by

As reported at p2pnet.net:

Word of the new Expert Witness Defense Fund is getting around online fast, and not only on English language sites. Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US), the members of the Big 4 organised music cartel, are engaged in a vicious and bitter battle with their own customers to force them into becoming compliant consumers, just as they were in the heady pre-Net days…

The fund has been created so RIAA victims can hire their own (entertainment and media) experts in what Recording Industry vs the People’s Ray Beckerman believes is a “cataclysmic event in the history of the RIAA’s litigation campaign”. Free Software Foundation Expert Witness Defense Fund will, “go a long way to at least partially levelling the playing field for the men, women and even young children currently under attack by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG,” we posted yesterday. So far, among others, it’s been reported by:

Continue reading

by

Debra Cassens Weiss reports Attorney Fee Expert Angers Judge, ABA Journal, 11/19/07.

A Philadelphia judge has chastised an expert witness for his testimony challenging attorney fees in two cases, including the class action case against Wal-Mart for unpaid overtime. In opinions issued last Wednesday, Judge Mark Bernstein criticized the defense witness, John Marquess of Legal Cost Control Inc., for testimony in the Wal-Mart case and in a successful class action suit against Kia Motors America Inc., the Legal Intelligencer reports. Bernstein awarded $45.7 million in attorney fees and $3.6 million in expenses in the Wal-Mart case.

In the Kia case, Bernstein said Marquess gave a biased review that was ‘intentionally factually restricted.’ Bernstein had awarded $4.125 million in fees in the suit, which had contended brakes on 1995 to 2001 Kia Sephias needed to be replaced about every 5,000 miles. The jury ordered Kia to pay $5.6 million, or $600 each, to the 9,402 class members. Bernstein had been ordered by a Pennsylvania superior court to write an opinion justifying the fees.

Continue reading

by

Kansas State University Professor and expert witness Bob Shoop has been writing about teacher sex abuse cases since 1984. The child sex abuse expert witness says that “consistently most studies have indicated that between 5 and 10 percent of the students in a high-school setting have had an inappropriate relationship with an adult.” An AP investigation has found that more than 2,500 educators have been accused of misconduct and victims were 80% students.

Jeff Kuhner, communications director for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, said there are many reasons why most of the abuse goes unreported, but underneath is a bureaucracy looking out for its own. “You have public school unions who are very deeply entrenched, who are more interested in protecting the interests of their members and teachers than they are in serving students,” he said.

Roy Einreinhofer, spokesman for The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, operates a voluntary database to track offenders and says the list is long. “The clearinghouse contains around 37,000 names,” he said, “and that increases at a rate of about 2,500 or so a year.”

Continue reading