Expert Witness Blog

Risk assessment expert witnesses may opine on risk management, risk management plans, and the risk management process. In Comprehensive Risk Assessment Guidance for Federal Information Systems, the National Institute of Standards and Technology writes:

Risk assessment is the topic of the newest special publication from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Guide for Conducting Risk Assessments, an extensive update to its original 2002 publication, is the authoritative source of comprehensive risk assessment guidance for federal information systems, and is open for public comments through November 4.

In The Advantages of Strategic Advisory Boards For Agency Owners insurance agencies expert witness Andres Barile, MBA, CPCU, writes:

As the owner of an insurance agency, there is no legal requirement to have a board of directors. But in these interesting times, the owner of an insurance agency should look at forming a strategic advisory board.

A strategic advisory board is a group of carefully selected insurance experience advisors that assists the agent owner in making important decisions. Unlike a traditional board of directors, a strategic advisory board is comprised of members who have knowledge and expertise in specific areas of the insurance industry. The goal of the strategic advisory board is to reduce the amount of anxiety equated with confronting unexpected situations, and to provide solid, trustworthy business advice to ensure successful and profitable agency planning and execution. By adding substantial value, their cost does not become a burden for the agent owner.

In Restaurants Expert Witness Says Restaurant Industry Needs More Focus on Safety & Security, Howard Cannon writes that the restaurant industry needs to pay closer attention to safety and security.

Government agencies recommend monthly safety meetings with staff and management, but very few follow that advice. Too often, there is poor training and lack of focus on safety and security for customers or the restaurant staff; and, there is little or no commitment to following up on the training that does exist.

Read more: openpr.com.

Long term care insurance expert witnesses may provide reports concerning managed care, health insurance, long term care insurance,and associated matters. On their website, the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance explains:

Most consumers do not know they must “health qualify” for long-term care insurance. There is a saying, your money pays for long-term care insurance – but your health buys it. Your health is the single most important factor.

Read more: aaltci.org.

Arborist expert Neville Fay MA , MICFor, MArborA, FLS, FRSA, principal arboricultural consultant and company director at Treework Environmental Practice, describes the loss of mature trees:

We are really endangering our native-grown trees by bringing in diseases which our trees never evolved to cope with.

One of the biggest pressures on our trees is us – through things like pollution and trenching of roots. We are not ­managing our urban environment with enough water for trees.

On his website, flammble materials expert witness William E. Gale, Jr., PhD, PE, CSP, CFEI, CFII, writes on computer fire modeling.

Modeling fires and explosions is a computer-intensive process requiring many gigabytes of RAM to implement the computational process, and significant hard drive space to store the results. Simple fire models can be run on a desktop system; however, more complex problems may take weeks to run on desktop PCs and work stations. Multiple computers linked together in parallel and arranged as a computer cluster is the proper venue for providing efficient and effective modeling capabilities.

On his website, combustion expert witness William E. Gale, Jr., PhD, PE, CSP, CFEI, CFII, writes on Fire Testing.

Small scale testing, also referred to as bench scale testing, can show how a small-sized material specimen reacts to various failure modes and/or incipient fire situations. Flammability and fire retardancy on a comparative basis may be of interest, or conformance with specific ASTM testing requirements. Medium and large scale testing, however, may be warranted for data development. With the use of sophisticated data acquisition systems and equipment involving radiometers, thermocouples, infrared thermal imaging cameras, oxygen depletion sensors, Intermediate Scale Calorimeters (ICAL) and other similar devices, BG&S can provide the needed foundational basis for applying the scientific method in the investigative process as called for by NFPA 921.

On his website, explosions expert witness William E. Gale, Jr., PhD, PE, CSP, CFEI, CFII, writes on Fire Testing.

Fire testing can provide critically important data to the fire scientist and fire investigator that cannot be derived in any other way. Testing also provides a platform for meaningful material behavior analyses where variables such as fuel package configurations and arrays, ventilation conditions, and thermal inertia effects are of interest.