Expert Witness Blog

The National Lung Screening Trial is tracking 50,000 smokers over nine years at a cost of $200 million. Funded by the National Cancer Institute, the study is expected to have a major impact on whether regular CT scans for smokers will become a standard of care and whether tobacco companies would have to pay for them. The Lung Cancer Alliance maintains that two of the study’s key researchers have conflicts of interest because they have been hired by tobacco companies as defense radiology expert witnesses. David Armstrong of WallStreetJournal.com also writes:

In a written response to the Lung Cancer Alliance, the NCI said the expert witness work was appropriate. “Service as an expert witness, presenting independent analyses based on published medical literature, is a commonly accepted activity for physicians, researchers, and other experts and in the instance of the specific circumstances described did not violate the required disclosure guidelines of the organizations involved,” NCI director John Niederhuber wrote.

To read more see Critics Question Objectivity Of Government Lung-Scan Study by David Armstrong

W.R. Grace & Co. will fight the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision that restored criminal charges of “knowing endangerment” in the case against the chemical manufacturer and its top managers. The appellate court also reversed decisions that would have narrowed the definition of asbestos and limited the materials available to expert witnesses. Asbestos expert witnesses will be testifying in the “mega-trial” in Missoula expected to commence in late winter or early spring of 2008.

According to the February 2005 indictment, Grace and six one-time executives concealed the dangers of asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mined near Libby and conspired “knowingly to release asbestos, a hazardous air pollutant, into the ambient air” said David M. Uhlmann, Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Program at the University of Michigan. Uhlmann called the Grace prosecution “one of the most significant cases ever brought under the federal environmental crimes program.” The Missoulian also reports:

‘A number of prior cases have charged knowing endangerment, and some of those have involved worker injuries or deaths,’ Uhlmann explained. ‘But the allegations in the Grace case stand alone in terms of the duration of the alleged misconduct and the resulting harm to the citizens of Libby, Montana.’

John A. Zortman, charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Sept. 2, 2006, beating-death of his landlord, was granted his sixth continuence last week. Eighth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Thomas Brownfield granted the continuence so that Zortman’s attorney would have time to acquire a crime scene analysis expert witness to examine blood splatter evidence. Pekin Times.com also writes:

Court appointed attorney Kevin D. Tippey of Grosboll, Becker, Tice and Tippey law firm in Petersburg told Brownfield that the state plans to present an expert witness on blood spatter at trial and that he needed time to have an expert review the blood spatter evidence that will be presented by Mason County State’s Attorney Kristen Miller. Zortman is accused of attacking and beating Sopher because Sopher confronted him about money that Zortman owed for utilities.

After two days of testimony, a Duluth, Minnesota, jury found that Jammie Thomas was liable for infringing Capitol Records copyrights on all 24 of the 24 recordings at issue. The jury awarded $222,000 in statutory damages after finding that the infringement was “willful.” RIAA’s expert witness, Dr. Doug Jacobson, examined date stamps on Thomas’s hard drive. The computer security expert witness is with the security business Palisade Systems. Eric Bangeman, writing for Ars Technica also writes:

The first case has gone to trial, and the verdict is in. The music labels now have a notch on their belt, while a woman who spent thousands of dollars on their product is now faced with a large judgment.

The RIAA hopes that this and the 20,000 other cases serve as a deterrent to would-be file-sharers, but the question of whether or not the music industry is engendering so much hostility and bad press with its campaign that it outweighs any short-term benefits remains. With a verdict in their favor, the RIAA hopes to ratchet the campaign of fear up a notch and says it will press forward with its legal campaign.

Animal expert witness Greg Kaufman, President of the Pacific Whale Foundation, testified this week in a court hearing on on behalf of three environmental groups. The groups are seeking an injunction against the Superferry to stop operations during an environmental study. The StarBulletin writes:

As an expert witness, Kaufman has responded to questions on whale population, breeding grounds, seasonal activity, vessel speed restrictions, vessel routes and research on whale-vessel collisions.

During cross-examination yesterday, Superferry attorney Bruce Lamon questioned Kaufman about a Feb. 10, 1998, incident near Kihei in which an agent with the Pacific Whale Foundation was accused of violating the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The alleged violations included failure to allow an inspection of research activity records by the National Marine Fisheries Service, Lamon said. He said a $5,000 fine was issued, along with a warning for alleged violations.

Motor vehicle crash injury expert witness Michael Freeman testified Tuesday that assumptions in an Allstate claims handling manual about how much force passengers endure in low-speed wrecks have no scientific basis. “These numbers are impossible, and they are just made up,” said Freeman, an epidemiologist at Oregon Health and Science University testifying in the second day of a $1.425 billion civil trial in Fayette Circuit Court challenging Allstate Insurance Co.’s claims handling practices. Kentucky.com also reports:

The document estimated the G-force placed on passengers and the speed of a crash based on the type of property damage to certain vehicle models. Freeman said the figures are significantly underestimated and scientifically impossible. ‘This is obviously a bogus document,’ Freeman said.

Freeman testified as an expert witness for Geneva Hager of Richmond, who claims that Allstate purposefully dragged out her injury claim in a 1997 wreck. Her lawyers argue that Allstate’s claims handling practices, implemented in 1995, violate Kentucky’s Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act. They are specifically attacking how Allstate assesses minor-impact soft-tissue injury cases, or MIST claims.

In Higher Benchmark For Class Actions Ameet Sachdev of the Chicago Tribune writes:

Demanding more evidence of wrongdoing and scrutinizing expert witnesses may, some say, bar many consumers from access to courts. Judges are raising the bar on class-action lawsuits, demanding more evidence of the alleged wrongdoing and even holding mini-trials of expert witnesses before deciding whether to enable many plaintiffs to sue as one.

The expanded scrutiny is designed to weed out frivolous suits that have drawn the scorn of businesses and inspired federal legislation imposing limits on class actions. But critics say it also threatens to deprive consumers of a legal recourse that has been used through the years to reshape the nation’s economic and social landscape.

LaVon Chisley, 23, a former Penn State football player from Maryland, was convicted Friday of murder in the stabbing death of former roommate Langston Carraway. Chisley was found guilty of first- and third-degree murder based on DNA evidence and expert witness testimony. The footprint expert witness testified that a pattern left by a shoe on the victim’s linoleum floor matched the wear pattern on shoes owned by the defendant.

At one time Chisley had a promising football career, but he was kicked off the Penn State team because of poor grades and at the time of the murder he was $50,000 in debt. He may have been after the cash that Carraway, kept in his apartment.

BaltimoreSun.com goes on to write: