Former NYPD detective James M. Gannalo is a forensic firearms consultant, firearms and ballistics expert witness and President of Stria Consulting Group. He describes aspects of firearms identification: 1) Microscopic Analysis of Ballistic Evidence – visual assessment of firearm related toolmarks using a comparison microscope to evaluate an agreement or…
Insurance attorney and bad faith expert witness Steven Plitt is the current author of Couch On Insurance 3d. His expert practice involves the analysis of complex insurance coverage and bad faith claims in both the 1st party property and 3rd party liability contexts. COUCH ON INSURANCE 3D is the authoritative…
An expert witness’s qualifications to testify may be challenged when the witness is qualified as an expert in one area, and the attorney asks for the expert’s opinion in a related area. The closer the new area of inquiry is to the area in which the witness is clearly qualified…
In What is a Physiatrist? Board Certified Physiatrist and Independent Medical Examiner J. William Wellborn, M.D, tells us that a physiatrist (fiz eye’ a trist) is a medical doctor who after medical school attends a 3-4 year residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Physiatry is a non-surgical specialty treating musculoskeletal…
There can be advantages in using an expert witness who has never testified at trial before. Juries may respond positively to an expert who avoids the “hired gun” or “professional witness” label. Whether auditioning the expert who has never testified or the seasoned expert, it is important to determine whether…
Hiring the child abuse expert witness early on in your case will benefit you in several ways. These include: 1) The expert can advise you of past or pending cases with similar issues involving the physical, emotional, or sexual mistreatment of children. 2) They can put you in touch with…
Retain your expert witness as early as possible. The first advantage is that the expert can help you decide if the case is questionable or a no-merit case before you have spent time and money on it. If that determination is made, defense counsel will gain strength in their argument…
When hiring an expert witness, contact the expert personally. Determine that there is no conflict of interest and that they have the expertise necessary for your case. Also take into consideration that expert witnesses may be hired as consultants. For example, a toxicology expert witness can help you evaluate your…
Since jurors sometimes give more weight to expert witness testimony than to lay opinions or closing arguments, finding topics in your case that are sufficiently beyond common experience will permit expert testimony. You may need to be imaginative in coming up with ideas for expert testimony. For example, industrial hygiene…
Plastics expert witness Dr. George Pasternack has this to say on coatings for web form plastic films: The rapid cure speed of UV curable coatings has enabled manufacturers of CDs and DVDs to maximize manufacturing line speed (~ 3 to 4 seconds per unit). Two different types of UV materials…