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Civil engineering expert witness and UC Berkeley engineering professor Robert Bea testified October 1, 2013, that British Petroleum had not developed technology to handle a deep water blowout at the time of the Macondo massive oil spill. Dr. Bea described their policy as a “think about it when it happens plan.” Company executive James Dupree admitted that BP engineers didn’t have the equipment they needed to attack the Macondo well. New Orleans district judge Carl Barbier is considering if BP’s actions reached the level of “gross negligence.”

Expert witness Professor Bea has over 48 years of experience in engineering and management of design, construction, maintenance, operation, and decommissioning marine systems including offshore platforms, pipelines, and floating facilities.

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Internet expert witnesses may provide reports regarding electronic mail, online chat, social media, and internet marketing. This week the FBI shut down the internet marketplace Silk Road and arrested owner Ross William Ulbricht. Ulbricht is charged with narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering. FBI agent Christopher Tarbell said the site was used by “several thousand drug dealers” to sell “hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs.”

Charges include offering tutorials on contact lists for black market connections and counterfeiters, hacking ATM machines, and guns and hit men for sale. An FBI pilot program targeting internet crime was recently launched by the Internet Crime Complaint Center and the state of Utah. The IC3 reports that in 2012 alone, victims reported more than $500 million in losses due to crimes like fraudulent auto sales, intimidation/extortion scams, online dating fraud, scareware and ransomware, auction fraud, charity fraud, and computer intrusions.

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Bus accident expert witnesses may consult regarding transportation accidents, bus accidents, motor carriers, and bus safety. In the news, National Transportation Safety Board investigators were not sent to the eastern Tennessee crash scene of a church bus with an passenger vehicle and tractor-trailer due to the federal government shutdown. The Tennessee Highway Patrol says a front tire on the bus malfunctioned caused the bus to cross the highway. Fatalities included six bus passengers, the truck driver and one of the people in the SUV.

The NTSB usually begins an investigation of a major accident with their “Go Team” which is comprised of three or four to more than a dozen specialists from the Board’s headquarters staff in Washington, D.C. The specialists at a highway crash include a truck or bus mechanical expert and a highway engineer.

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A Los Angeles jury reached a decision that AEG Live was not responsible for Michael Jackson’s death. Jackson’s family was seeking $1.5B in economic damages during the five month lawsuit. AEG Live’s finance expert witness estimated that Michael Jackson would have earned $21M if he had completed a worldwide tour and a Las Vegas show. AEG’s lead attorney Marvin S. Putman is a partner in O’Melveny & Myers LLP’s Century City office and a member of the Business Trial and Litigation Practice. He described Michael Jackson as making “some bad choices.” “It was Mr. Jackson, not AEG Live, that chose Conrad Murray.”

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Medical expert witness Dr. Vincent Marks testified for the defense in the New Hampshire murder trial against Jodi LaClaire. LaClaire is accused of injecting Nita Lowery with insulin resulting in a coma. Lowrey was not diabetic and died after nine days in a coma. Dr. Marks testified that he has no idea what killed Nita Lowery in 2009 and believes that no one else knows. He describes the lack of medical information compiled before her death to be “appalling.”

Dr. Marks is a professor of biochemistry and has spent much of his career researching hypoglycemia. An expert in diabetes and the effects of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, he co-authored Insulin Murders with Caroline Richmond.

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Gangs expert witnesses may advise regarding gang activity, gang crimes, and gang education. Author and gangs expert witness Jesse De La Cruz testified in the Modesto, CA, murder trial of three young men charged in the death of Chaz Bettencourt. De La Cruz opined that the shooting was not associated with gang activity while the prosecution says the defendants acted as members of the Norteño street gang.

De La Cruz’s book Detoured chronicles his life of gangs, substance abuse, and crime and goes on to detail his release from prison and journey to receive a Masters of Social Work. He now offers attorneys, prosecutors, judges, and juries insight into the secretive world of gangs.

Read more: http://jsdconsultations.com/

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In More effective use of experts in slip-and-fall cases – The right expert will help you to better prepare the case and win it at trial, attorney David Reinard writes on when to retain your experts:

• How obvious is liability? If you know you have them dead to rights, you can wait as close to trial as your personality allows.

• How big of a case is it? If you have a big damages case, you can’t afford to wait and miss something because you didn’t hire an expert at the beginning. And if you have a big damages case, you need to be ready to spend the money to do it right.

Continue reading

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Oil and gas expert witnesses may consult on oil and gas pumps, fracking, petrochemical manufacturing, pipelines, crude oil, and the petroleum industry, as well as related topics. On September 24, 2013, the EPA published final amendments to sections of its 2012 New Source Performance Standard regarding storage vessels used in the production, processing, transmission, and storage of oil and natural gas. On EnergyLegalBlog.com, attorneys at Bracewell & Giuliani write “These amendments specifically modify the regulations applicable to storage tanks with a potential to emit six or more tons per year of volatile organic compounds.”

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Property insurance expert witnesses may consult on home insurance, property claims, fire insurance, flood insurance, and earthquake insurance. In the news, flood insurance rates are scheduled to go up sharply on October 1, 2013 as part of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. BW 2012 will require the NFIP to raise rates to reflect true flood risk, make the program more financially stable, and change how the Flood Insurance Rate Map updates impact policyholders.

FEMA offers Q&A re: BW 12 at http://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/31873?id=7266

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Civil engineering expert witnesses may consult on bridges, sewers, flood control, and earthwork. This week the Leo Frigo Bridge in Wisconsin was closed indefinitely due to a section that is sagging by an estimated two feet. The bridge was built in 1980 and last inspected in August 2012. The Federal Highway Administration has sent a team to aid in the investigation.

greenbaygazette.com offers a link to a DataMine: Search for ‘structurally deficient’ bridges in the state: Use this tool to look up the bridges in your community that have been identified as “structurally deficient,” meaning that the deck, substructure and/or superstructure requires attention for issues such as potholes or rusting trusses.