Post-traumatic stress syndrome expert witnesses may consult and testify on PTSD, post-traumatic stress reaction, and symptoms of PTSD including nightmares, flashbacks, and emotional detachment. Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Ryan Hall, testified this week for the defense in the alleged rape of a cadet at Camden Military Academy. SC. Dr. Hall said the victim showed few signs of PTSD when he returned to Georgia and was involved in sports, business, Facebook, etc.
Read more: http://www.thestate.com/
Suicide expert witnesses may testify regarding suicide attempts, suicide rates, and suicidal ideation. This week, Dr. Allan Berman testified in the murder trial against ex-Albuquerque police officer Levi Chavez. Chavez is accused of shooting and killing his wife in 2007, and then attempting to make her death look like a suicide.
Dr. Berman, Ph.D., ABPP, is executive director of the American Association of Suicidology.
Read more: http://www.kob.com.
Audio expert witnesses may consult on audio forensics, voice recognition, audio tape verification, recorded evidence, and acoustic engineering. Last week Judge Debra Nelson ruled on voice recognition evidence in the George Zimmermantrial. Judge Nelson found that the expert testimony regarding a 911 call did not meet scientific evidence standards.
Testimony has now reached the fourth day in the murder trial of Zimmerman who is accused of killing Trayvon Martin in 2012. Zimmerman maintains that he acted in self defense.
Fuels expert witnesses may testify on petroleum hydrocarbon analysis, propane gas, solid fuels, automotive fuel, automotive fuel economy technology, and more. This week, the republic.com reports on the controversy over the high-ethanol blend of gasoline known as E15 which contains 15% ethanol. 10% is the norm sold at most U.S. gas stations.
Ethanol is an alternative fuel fermented from corn, grains or agricultural waste and is used to supplement gasoline.
Explosions expert witnesses may consult on chemical explosives, magnetic explosions, steam boiler explosions, and dust explosions. In the news, an explosion at an Indiana grain bin southeast of Chicago left one worker dead. LaPorte County police say James Swank may have been the victim of a grain dust explosion at the Union Mills Co-op. A dust explosion is the fast combustion of dust particles in an enclosed area.
Products liability expert witness Susan Maccoy may consult on product development, product liability, professional liability, and employee and consumer injuries related to the cosmetology, beauty salon, and spa industry. Her expertise and professional experience encompasses the full range of cosmetology products, services, techniques, procedures, policies, and salon management.
Ms. Maccoy’s latest book, Down the Shampoo Bowl: The ABC’s of Hair Salon Management details successful business strategies as well as pitfalls to avoid in the cosmetology business.
Environmental health expert witnesses may consult on environmental exposure, leaking underground storage tanks, and occupational safety. Hanford Nuclear Reservation is in the news at after the U.S. Energy Department reported that workers may have found leaking radioactive waste (chron.com). Hanford, in south-central Washington, was home to the first full scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Hanford plutonium was used in the first nuclear bomb and the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.
In Watermarking an Expert Witness CV, construction site expert witness William Gulya, Jr., President & CEO, Middlesex Trenching Company, writes:
A recent article on a prominent expert witness directory site recommended and encouraged their experts and consultants to watermark their curriculum vitae. Their reasoning, according to the article, was because, “As disconcerting as it may be, unscrupulous activity does exist in the legal industry.”
“Marking the CV with such statements as “UNOFFICIAL,” “NOT YET RETAINED,” “DO NOT SUBMIT,” or “UNAUTHORIZED,” prevents unconscionable practitioners from downloading a CV and submitting it as their “Retained” expert witness, or implying such, without the knowledge and consent of the expert.”(Experts.com)
In Cross-Examination Questions (and Answers) About Your Advertising, Rosalie Hamilton, the Expert’s Expert on marketing writes:
Answer questions honestly, and do not elaborate, except to further defuse the question.
As with all deposition and courtroom questions, respond only to questions, not to statements; be comfortable with the silence and wait for a question.
Don’t answer compound questions, or at least divide your response, with one answer to the first part of the question and a clearly separate answer to the second part.
In Workers’ Compensation Underwriting Philosophy as Partnership, workers compensation expert witness David L. Stegall, CPCU, ARM, ARe, RPA, writes:
The problem with workers’ compensation underwriting is relatively simple: How does an underwriter find employers whose employees do not get injured very often and that return to work well and quickly. Identifying a problem is much easier than solving it. The best service a business can provide is to solve a problem. Most of the problems with workers’ compensation are management problems, i.e. how the process is managed. Businesses handle processes in different ways, some more effectively and efficiently than others. The processes used by some employer’s lead to superior results, i.e. fewer losses (frequency) and lesser losses (severity) as compared to the employers who have poorer loss histories. Process management flows from management attitudes. The way a manager faces a problem has much to do with their success in solving the problem. So, what needs to be looked for is a management attitude: one of partnership and cooperation. An underwriter needs to look for employers who understand human resource management and who care about their employees.
David Stegall is the Principal Consultant at Risk Consulting & Expert Services.
