Expert Witness Blog

Cell phone expert witnesses may consult and testify on wireless communications, cellular, and wireless networks. This week, the Rockstar Consortium (owned by Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Ericsson and Sony) sued Google, Samsung, and others over alleged mobile phone patent infringements. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas while at the same time Samsung and Apple are in patent litigation in more than 10 European countries.

Dan Rowinski, Mobile Editor at ReadWrite, says Rockstar could be considered a “non-practicing entity.” While NPEs are patent holders, they do not manufacture products or supply services based on these patents and are sometimes referred to as “patent trolls.” On October 30, 1023, Sen. Orrin Hatch introduced the Patent Litigation Integrity Act (S. 1612) to inhibit litigation by patent trolls.

What types of cases may wireless technology expert witnesses consult on? They may assist with disputes involving wireless communications, cellular, GPS, and more. The Global Positioning System is a navigation system made possible by 24 satellites in orbit 12K miles above the earth. The satellites are solar powered and each circles the earth twice a day.

In the news, a Philadelphia federal appeals court ruled that police must have a warrant before using GPS to track a suspect’s vehicle. In Case No. 12-2548, Judge Greenaway opined: “This appeal stems from the Government’s warrant-less installation of a Global Positioning System device (a “GPS device” or “GPS tracker”) to track the movements of appellee Harry Katzin’s van.”

Transit expert witnesses may opine on bus & truck safety, highways, bridges, transportation engineering, and related matters. Background information on these issues may be found at the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration website which offers news releases, policy letters, the FTA library (which includes a Legislation & Law search page), and much more.

There is also an email update service. I signed up for the Transit Research Update and Press Releases.

Internet expert witnesses may consult and and testify on electronic mail, identity theft, and internet security. In the news, documents leaked by Edward Snowden and Washington Post interviews describe the National Security Agency as collecting information from Silicon Valley internet companies, such as Google and Yahoo, on millions of customers. Google’s David C. Drummond, Senior VP, Corporate Development, and Chief Legal Officer, said his company does not “provide any government, including the US government, with access to our systems.” Drummond served as Google’s first outside counsel while at Wilson Sonsini and joined Google in 2002.

FYI: Gmail was launched on On April Fools’ Day in 2004.

Aviation expert witnesses may consult on aircraft design, aircraft operations, aviation maintenance, aviation safety, and more. This week a Delta Air Lines international flight made an emergency landing in Cold Bay, Alaska, after an engine warning message flashed in the cockpit. The flight left Tokyo and was bound for San Francisco.

Cold Bay is the furthermost settlement on the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula and the beginning of the Aleutian Islands Archipelago. The Cold Bay Airport serves as an emergency runway for aircraft flying through the North Pacific. There were no injuries on the flight.

Transportation infrastructure expert witnesses may consult on highways, bridges, transportation engineering, and transportation funding. In Los Angeles this week, over 1,000 business, transportation, and elected leaders met at the 12th annual Mobility 21 Southern California Transportation Summit to address challenges in Southern California’s infrastructure. Along with traffic congestion problems, the Southern California Association of Governments foresees a $200B deficit for infrastructure through 2035.

Mobility 21 was formed in 2002 by the Metro and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce as well as the Automobile Club of Southern California in order to speak as an advocate for transportation issues. They may be contacted at mobility21@me.com.

Medical toxicology expert witness Dr. Gary Dawson testified in the Provo, UT, murder trial of Martin MacNeill. MacNeill is accused of giving his wife five drugs including Valium which caused her death in 2007. Pharmacist Dawson described drugs found in Michele MacNeill’s body and how they are processed in the body. The prosecution contends that MacNeill killed his wife in order to continue an affair with Gypsy Willis while the defense says Mrs. MacNeill died due to a hear condition.

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In Brain Injury and Concussion, neurology expert witness Dr. Richard A. Rubenstein writes:

A small percentage of concussed patients do not recover as expected. Why? Signs of pathology on imaging studies may be the answer (complicated concussion). Especially troublesome are those claimants with no loss of consciousness, a Glasgow Coma Scale Score (GCS) of 15, and little or no post-traumatic amnesia. New research may offer an answer. A small subset of claimants with MRI or CT evidence of abnormality maybe a window into brain function and sequelae of a blow to the head. This cutting edge article offers an explanation for both memory and executive function impairment after a complicated mild traumatic brain injury.

In this observational study, the clinical relevance of abnormal findings on early brain imaging after mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is demonstrated. This study shows that abnormal imaging in the acute state determines prognosis in a subset of patients with prolonged symptoms after concussion (complicated concussion).