Expert Witness Blog

This week police in Beaverton, Oregon, arrested 17 year old swim coach Mitchell Alan Douglas Kelly who is accused of sexually abusing two young girls at the Sunset Athletic Club. The girls were taken from the pool area to another part of the facility, according to Sgt. Bob Ray. Investigators for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office are concerned there may be other victims.

In this type of case, child sexual abuse expert witnesses may testify regarding sexual misconduct, sexual molestation, and child sexual assault. These professionals may provide reports concerning sexual exploitation and statutory rape. On its website, The American Board of Pediatrics describes the child abuse pediatrics practice scope which includes:

Understand the commonly used definitions of child sexual abuse.

On his website, dviaviation.com, aviation and airports expert witness Steven J. Meyers, discusses pilot error. Mr. Meyers is an experienced aircraft accident investigator, and has work experience as an engineer, pilot, and mechanic.

Human beings are unpredictable as compared to physical evidence, and in the absence of cockpit or flight recorded data, investigators are left with evaluating human behavior from a percentage of likelihood. Most investigators typically lack adequate training to properly evaluate human behavior and performance, because there are such a large and diverse number of reasons that pilots can commit an error. Pilots make errors because they have not been adequately trained to perform tasks, or because they do not have the basic ability to perform the task even if they were trained. They commit errors because the task is beyond normal human abilities. They commit errors because they misinterpret information important to the performance of the task. They commit errors because some event occurring during the performance of the task changes the nature of the task in a way that they have never encountered. They also commit errors because of influences such as stress, distraction, fatigue, illness, visual illusions, spatial disorientation, old age, immaturity, and cultural beliefs. Pilot performance is also influenced or affected by such issues as cockpit design, temperature, altitude, physiology of the body, emotions, interactions, and communications.

Some common Human Factors issues related to piloting error can include:

On his website FAQ, business expert witness Richard Teichner, CPA, CVA, CDFAJ, describes the role of the forensic accountant serving as an expert witness.

When explaining complex financial analyses to the trier of fact, it is imperative that your expert witness is skilled at clearly and accurately explaining the details in a manner that can be easily understood. Expert witnesses also must be objective and utilize generally acceptable practices in order for their testimony to be credible and admissible.

How can a forensic accountant help my case?

Automotive engineering expert witnesses may consult regarding automobile defect, automotive technology, automobile design, and the auto industry. General Motors announced more recalls last week with a 2014 total so far at 48. The most recent recall covers 474,000 pickups and SUVs. US automakers have recalled 32.4 million vehicles in less than six months. GM said a software glitch can cause “the transfer case to electronically switch to neutral without input from the driver” on 2014 and 2015 models.

GM.com reports:

General Motors (GM: NYSE) today announced four safety recalls covering 428,211 vehicles in the United States.

In Evaluating and Understanding Credit Damage, credit damage expert witness Doug Minor writes:

One of the first steps is to examine the credit score itself. This seemingly straightforward action can become complex very quickly, as there are often numerous reports, with scores from multiple sources. So, a consumer will many times have a number of credit scores, each reflecting the data and scoring criteria of its source. Understanding the different features of each type of score and report is an important evaluation skill that an expert should have to accurately quantify credit damages.

For example, is the score a FICO score, or a Vantage score? Is the report a business-to-business (B2B), or a business-to-consumer (B2C) product? Was it a residential mortgage credit report (RMCR), or a three repository merged credit report (TRMCR)? When was the report produced? All of these are typical questions that an evaluator will ask, and in most cases they are necessary.

In Trade Secret Misappropriation of Software, trade secrets expert witness Gary Stringham writes on his blog:

A trade secret is something that provides an advantage to the company that owns it. It could be formulas, software, even lists of names. A trade secret is not disclosed publicly (unlike a patent).

If a company wishes to mark something a trade secret, it must proactively take action to protect those secrets. Employees of the company should have signed an agreement to keep secret company confidential information. If the trade secret needs to be disclosed to non-employees, those people need to first sign non-disclosure agreements.

In Evaluating and Understanding Credit Damages, credit damage expert witness Doug Minor writes:

Credit damage is a somewhat new field of expertise, and many attorneys and consumers have not yet been exposed to its potential and importance. But this is changing, as more and more cases demonstrate that such damage can indeed be quantified. Credit damages can pertain in a variety of cases: divorce, wrongful foreclosure, personal injury, breach of contract, identity theft, fraud, and medical malpractice, to name a few.

Now more than ever before, award amounts include compensation for credit damage. And as my own experience has confirmed, the amounts can easily reach well into the six-figure range. Thus, the competence of the experts retained in such cases is important.