October 2008 Archives

An Oakland pilot program lets clients, attorneys, expert witnesses use phones and video to reduce travel expenses reports Detroit News. 

Attorneys with cases in Oakland County Circuit Court will be able to argue motions by telephone and eventually have witnesses and experts testify on camera from remote locations as part of a pilot program intended to save money. The court is offering the new service to attorneys and the public under the Judge On-Line program.

The program is expected to save time and money for clients and their attorneys by reducing travel to and from the courthouse and eliminating costs for out-of-state witnesses and experts which often run into the thousands. Oakland Circuit Judge Steven Andrews, who is leading the test program along with six other circuit judges, said the first phase allows telephonic conferences for motions, pretrials, scheduling and status conference and other proceedings for a simple fee of $30.

Los Angeles CityWatch reports on a landmark decision regarding the MTA/Expo Line Construction Authority's two proposed Expo Light Rail Line crossings next to Dorsey HS and Foshay Learning Center. 

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Judge Kenneth Koss ruled MTA's plans unsafe, and the community and LAUSD's safety concerns valid.  The decision is a tentative decision that will either be adopted or amended by the full CPUC commission on November 21.

At the evidentiary hearing three expert witnesses testified on behalf of the community group including Professor Najmedin Meshkati, an internationally renowned expert in human risk analysis and creator of USC Transportation System safety program, Ed Ruszak a nationally-renowned expert in traffic impacts and vehicular accident causation, and West Point graduate and retired Major Russ Quimby, who for 22 years led the rail and rail-transit accident investigation group at the National Transportation Safety Board before he retired in 2007.

Quimby testified that the street-level crossing 10 feet from the property line of Dorsey HS, where every day afterschool hundreds of students flood the narrow sidewalks, left a high risk of catastrophic accident.

The Dispatch reports on a lawsuit filed by Newark homeowners against the Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company seeking nearly $1 million in damages allegedly caused by a train derailment in 2004.  The case was dismissed last week when a Circuit Court judge agreed the plaintiffs had not provided expert witnesses to meet their burden of proof in the case.

The co-owners of the house on Basket Switch Rd., Cleo K. Sundstron and Dinna M. Lawrence, filed suit last February in Worcester County Circuit Court asking a judge to intercede on their behalf after three years of frustration with the railroad and insurance companies. The two women prepared and filed the detailed complaint on their own when they could not find an attorney to represent them, which ultimately proved to be their undoing in the case...  The plaintiffs had not presented any expert witnesses to support their claims just weeks before trial was set to begin...

Proving the allegations the train wreck caused the damage to their home likely would have required a panel of experts on derailments, rail inspections, home inspections, contractors etc., but Sundstrom and Lawrence had not identified any expert witnesses before the prescribed deadlines in the case... While their case might have had merit, it was the inability of the plaintiffs to secure expert witnesses that swayed the judge to rule in favor of the defense’s motion for summary judgment last week.

Waste Management filed a case against SAP in March claiming an enterprise resource planning implementation was badly handled. SAP hopes to delay the trial and accuses Waste Management of producing voluminous documents but not the most critical.  WM replied that SAP is involved in failed implementation cases often enough to use the same motions and experts.   NewYorkTimes.com reports:

In a filing in Harris County, Texas District Court earlier this month, SAP asked the court to delay the trial until February 2010 due to the complexity of the case. The vendor also alleges Waste Management has not behaved in good faith during the discovery process...

"These types of lawsuits, arising from defective software and failed implementation, are routine for SAP," Waste Management said. "There are standard motions it files and it uses the same types of expert witnesses. ... There is no reason the case cannot be discovered and tried in 2009.

USA Today advises consumers to be skeptical when buying a low mileage used car.

A NHTSA study six years ago estimated that tampered odometers can be found on 450,000 cars a year, costing consumers $1 billion annually.  "It's one of the leading property crimes in the country, and it costs consumers billions," says Rosemary Shahan, founder of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety in Sacramento. 

Used car buyers can protect themselves by checking odometer readings against the online records of auto database services, says the auto expert. Carfax provides the service free at www.carfax.com/odo.

Also useful precautions: Look for oil change reminder stickers with mileage that may have been left on the car, and have a mechanic inspect it before buying to look for discrepancies between wear and indicated mileage.

Have a case involving telemarketing?  You may want assistance from a marketing expert to help you and your client interpret two amendments to the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule which became effective October 1, 2008:

The first is an amendment making explicit a prohibition in the TSR on telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages without a consumer's express written agreement to receive such calls. This amendment also requires that all prerecorded telemarketing calls provide specified opt-out mechanisms so that consumers can opt out of future calls. The amendment is necessary because the reasonable consumer would consider prerecorded telemarketing messages to be coercive or abusive of such consumer's right to privacy.

The second amendment modifies the method for measuring the maximum call abandonment rate prescribed by the TSR's call abandonment safe harbor. The new method will permit sellers and telemarketers to calculate call abandonment rates for a live calling campaign over a thirty-day period, or any part thereof. This amendment is necessary because the current ``per day'' standard effectively precludes the use of predictive dialers with small calling lists. [FR Doc. E8-20253 Filed 8-28-08; 8:45 am]

Business 24/7 reports Saudi Arabia has announced the launch of Kingdom Tower, which will be the tallest in the world at a kilometer high.

It is claimed to be the world's tallest tower and part of the Kingdom City project that is being built by Kingdom Holding Co.  Meanwhile, according to a leading wind engineering expert, designs of several tall buildings ranging over a mile high are on the drawing table and clients in the region are pushing the boundaries to achieve greater heights.

"Mile-high buildings start pushing things to the extreme where you are not only worried about wind loadings but also about aerodynamic stability," said Dr Volker Buttgereit, managing director of the London-based BMT Fluid Mechanics Limited.

Michael A. Davis was found guilty Tuesday of setting a fire that killed two women and four children in Youngstown, Ohio's largest mass murder in history. Prosecution witnesses established last week that Davis, angry over the theft of his cell phone by a teenage boy who was in the Crawford house when the fire started, confessed to setting the fire.

Arson investigation expert witness Lt. Kevin Johnson testified for the prosecution.  Johnson described the fire as starting on an upholstered couch on the porch and following a draft to the second floor, where all six trapped victims died. Dr. Richard Henderson, a chemistry expert and certified fire investigator from South Carolina, was the defense’s only witness Tuesday.

The St. Joe News reports:

Despite a state report that says otherwise, a Kansas City, MO, personal injury law firm told residents Saturday that their five-month investigation shows a larger than expected number of cancer cases among the town’s 6,500 residents. Dr. James Dahlgren, a California toxicology expert made famous by a movie about Erin Brockovich, said the high incidences are the after effects of the former Rockwool Industries insulation plant, which operated in Cameron for 18 years, between 1974 and 1992. Ms. Brockovich was to speak in Cameron on Monday, but organizers said she postponed due to a scheduling conflict.

Citing a town population of 6,500, he said that number is “higher than it should be” when considering 15 out of 100,000 malignant cancer cases would be a high incidence in any other part of the country.

Answering an audience question about the validity of the state investigation, Dr. Dahlgren said his experience as an expert on numerous toxic exposure cases across the country has been that the state investigates the community in a way so that they’re not compelled into action and made to run into “a political buzzsaw.”

The St. Joe News reports:

Despite a state report that says otherwise, a Kansas City, MO, personal injury law firm told residents Saturday that their five-month investigation shows a larger than expected number of cancer cases among the town’s 6,500 residents. Dr. James Dahlgren, a California toxicology expert made famous by a movie about Erin Brockovich, said the high incidences are the after effects of the former Rockwool Industries insulation plant.

State health officials previously reported that the high levels of lead and arsenic were not to the health threat level and that they had no proof that the metals reached people through ingestion, inhalation or skin contact.

However, attorneys said Saturday that they’ve interviewed witnesses and have uncovered likely legal violations relating to the Rockwool facility. Mr. Peterson said the company “surreptitiously” burned materials in violation of environmental laws.

Before the town hall meeting, residents lined up to view a map locating many brain tumor patients in the area.

 

San Diego City Beat reports on a lawsuit filed by the family of Ramel Henderson, who died in police custody May 29, 2007:

Prior to 1998, it was widely held that prone restraint significantly compromised a person’s ability to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, based on studies by King County (Seattle) Medical Examiner Donald Raey. Raey was an expert witness in a 1997 lawsuit against San Diego County, filed by the family of Daniel Price, who died after being hogtied and left on his stomach by Sheriff’s deputies. To refute Raey’s testimony, the county hired a team of UCSD researchers to study oxygen intake in people who were hogtied. The team concluded that while their study subjects found breathing more difficult, they were still able to take in enough oxygen. On the witness stand, Raey agreed that the study was valid; largely for that reason, the court ruled in favor of the defendants. On Jan. 14, 1998, the county issued a press release: “LEGAL VICTORY LIKELY TO HAVE NATIONAL IMPACT: ‘Positional Asphyxia’ Not Linked to Use of Hogtie to Restrain Suspect.”

There was one problem: The study didn’t—and couldn’t—replicate real-world conditions. Participants were all healthy males of normal weight who had no pre-existing medical conditions. The people most likely to die while being restrained tend to be—like Price and Henderson—overweight (Henderson was 5-foot-6, 199 pounds), under the influence of drugs and have a pre-existing heart condition.

San Diego City Beat reports on a lawsuit filed by the family of Ramel Henderson, who died in police custody May 29, 2007:

John Peters, expert witness and former police officer who now heads the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, said it would be impossible to replicate in a lab what happens to a person physiologically during an altercation with police.

“Universities, medical doctors—any of us—can’t just go out and, say, go to the California state prison in Soledad and say to the volunteers, ‘We’re going to give you coke and ramp you up, and then you’re going to wrestle with some guys, and we’re going to hogtie you and, oh, by the way, you might die, but it’s in the interest of research,’” Peters said. “That isn’t permitted under any of the ethical guidelines. So what the courts have generally done is they’ve said, ‘OK we have to go with the existing research—we can’t go with what should have been or what could have been.

In Defective Fasteners Drive Structural Failures ForensisGroup® expert witness John D. Pratt, Ph.D., P.E., discusses failures of mechanically-fastened joints:

Industrial fasteners are no less subject to quality or installation defects. Leaking roofs, sudden ladder and seat anchorage failures, corrosion, poor paint adhesion, and numerous other manifestations of poor fastener quality are avoidable with more attention to the manufacturing and installation details.

Poor fastener quality and installation practices are at the root of most, but not all, fastener failures. A misunderstanding as to how published strength allowables are established can also contribute to premature failure.

San Diego City Beat reports on a lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died in police custody:

On May 29, 2007, Ramel Henderson, then 51, lost consciousness while San Diego Police officers attempted to put him in what’s known as “maximum restraint,” where a subject is handcuffed and placed on his stomach while officers bind the person’s ankles and then attach the ankle cuff to a waist cord.  Henderson never regained consciousness and died several hours later at Paradise Valley Hospital in National City.

At issue is the amount of time Henderson was left lying on his stomach while handcuffed. For the past two decades, law-enforcement, civil-rights and medical experts have debated, and never quite agreed, whether prone restraint compromises a person’s ability to breathe to the point of being lethal (one training expert advises that anytime a person is handcuffed face-down, an officer on scene should hold his or her breath as a way to determine when the subject should be rolled onto his side so he can get a good breath).

In Defective Fasteners Drive Structural Failures ForensisGroup® expert witness John D. Pratt, Ph.D., P.E., discusses failures of mechanically-fastened joints:

Structural failures can oftentimes be traced to a defective mechanically-fastened joint. For example, longitudinal and circumferential fuselage joints are among the most highly loaded parts of an airframe, subject to loading each time the aircraft is pressurized. Over many flight cycles improperly installed rivets can loosen, permitting microscopic movement between overlapping fuselage panels. Such movement leads to fretting fatigue cracks resulting in early failure. The highly publicized rapid decompression of Aloha Airlines flight 243 in 1988 resulted from such fatigue cracks along the fuselage joints. These cracks eventually grew long enough to connect with one another and catastrophic failure resulted.

While the Aloha Airlines case represents a failure of maintenance and engineering personnel to anticipate the impact of multi-site fatigue damage, there are in fact many causes of premature joint failure, ranging from inadequate supplier quality control to defective installation practices.

Hiring the right construction engineering expert witness will provide proof and testimony in court to support your case.  In Tips For Selecting The Right Expert Witness Service (Skynewswire.com), Rosie Fletcher writes:

5. Training and Workshops Attended

Believe it or not, there are trainings, workshops and seminars offered to help expert witnesses improve in their line of work. These additional classes will help expert witnesses attain their goals in a more effective and efficient manner.

6. Paying the Right Price

Of course, expert witness services come in a range of prices. Their rates depend on the amount of experience they have and the extent of work theyll be expending for your case. Its your call if you wish to go over your budget and secure a favorable outcome of your case.

7. Reputation Matters

Lastly, although its you who have hired the expert witness, he must still remember and understand that his primary duty is to help the court seek the truth. Thats why his reputation matters as well. If hes known to take bribes and make dishonest or biased claims in favor of the hiring party, his professionalism will surely be questioned in the court room. In the worst case scenario, his opinion would be rendered invalid and youll end up having hired him for no reason.

Hiring the right construction engineering expert witness will provide proof and testimony in court to support your case. In Tips For Selecting The Right Expert Witness Service (Skynewswire.com), Rosie Fletcher writes:

Even if you don't need to hire the right expert witness service now, you could need one later so its better to be prepared in advance. The expect witness service you'll avail of must meet the following criteria:

3. Achievements and Credentials Although titles don't define a person, they do carry significant weight in the court room. Consider this: if a jury is debating on the quality of education being provided by a certain school, that type of expert witness will they be more inclined to believe one who has sufficient experience in teaching and have a long list of professional credits and certification to his name or one who has simply had the benefit of graduating from high school? It may not be fair but that's how the world or more specifically, the law works. Knowing this, why hire one who doesn't have enough credentials when you can hire an expert witness that has them?

4. Degree of Involvement in an Industry If you are looking for an expert witness to help you win a dispute over a real estate property, you will do better if you hire an expert witness who happens to work in the real estate industry as well. Being an active member of the industry helps the expert witness become a better judge and adviser. The expert witness doesn't rely on his observations and analytic skills alone to render a judgment; his actual work experience helps him greatly as well in coming up with valid and accurate results.

Fraud expert witness Brian Johnson testified Tuesday in Ottawa at the trial of four people accused of participating in a credit and debit card fraud scheme. OttawaCitizen.com writes:

Johnson, a fraud investigator with TD Canada Trust, testified that an RBC Royal Bank Visa card seized during a police search of Canadian Barcode and Plastic Card Supply Inc. did not have the same security features that would be found on a legitimate card. Mr. Johnson was testifying as an expert witness at the trial of Robert Cattral, 38, Catherine Margaret Brunet, 38, Henry Charles Beauchamp, 39, and Ravi Rabbi Shanghavi, 28. The four have pleaded not guilty to a total of 32 criminal charges, including allegations that they were involved in purchasing, possessing and selling devices that they knew or ought to have known were going to be used for credit card forgery or fraud. Crown prosecutors say Mr. Cattral and Ms. Brunet were co-owners of Canadian Barcode, a Bank Street company that was a front for the alleged criminal organization.