Expert Witness Blog

Sales forecasting expert witnesses may testify on sales promotions, retail sales, sales revenues and more. Referenceforbusiness.com describes QUALITATIVE FORECASTING METHODS.

Qualitative forecasting techniques generally employ the judgment of experts in the appropriate field to generate forecasts. A key advantage of these procedures is that they can be applied in situations where historical data are simply not available. Moreover, even when historical data are available, significant changes in environmental conditions affecting the relevant time series may make the use of past data irrelevant and questionable in forecasting future values of the time series.

Read more: Forecasting http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Fa-For/Forecasting.html#ixzz1OXPlUsZp

Health care administration expert witnesses may opine on medical record administrators, health information managers, health services managers, and more. On its website, the American Health Information Management Association offers this information on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which fast tracked the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs).

Ensuring patient information is protected and secure from any intrusion is a priority in health care. It is crucial for organizations to understand and implement the privacy and security controls needed to access health information while ensuring patient privacy. According to Healthcare IT, healthcare experts have identified the top seven trends in health information privacy for 2011.

1. Health information exchanges, many of which will be launched by inexperienced and understaffed organization

Interior design expert witnesses may opine on residential designs, furnishings, and commercial designs. BuildingDesign+Construction.com writes:

Hospitals are noisier than ever. Worldwide, sound levels inside hospitals average 72 decibels during the day and 60 decibels at night, which far exceeds the standard of 40 decibels or less, set by the World Health Organization. Studies find that the clamor of modern medicine can harm both patients and staff. Unwanted sound wrecks sleep, raises stress levels, induces medical mistakes, and contributes to alarm fatigue, which occurs when monitors shriek so often they are ignored or turned off, causing safety issues.

In response, hospitals throughout Illinois and the U.S. are launching “quiet campaigns” that include eliminating intercom paging, replacing metal trash cans, installing sound-absorbing flooring and paneling, and dimming lights at night to remind staff to keep their voices down.

Medical records expert witnesses may write reports and opine on rehabilitation centers, medical record review, physician credentialing, and related topics. Here, Federal News Daily reports Veterans Administration medical records show a decrease in hospital-acquired infections.

Over the past few years, Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities have been drawn into the spotlight because of a small, but widely reported, number of medical slip-ups – such as improperly processed endoscopy equipment at one facility. But a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine spotlights VA for something far more positive – infection-control practices that marked a dramatic improvement in preventing hospital-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections.

The VA initiative, now in its fourth year, reduced MRSA infections by more than 60 percent in VA intensive-care units across the nation, the article states. MRSA infections are a serious global health care issue and are difficult to treat because the bacteria are often resistant to many antibiotics.

Commercial design expert witnesses may write reports and testify on interior designs, space planning, green retrofits, and more. Here, BuildingDesign+Construction.com writes:

The City of Seattle sent letters to more than 800 large commercial property owners and managers today informing them about a new citywide program designed to help owners and managers assess and improve building energy efficiency and spur the market for building energy retrofits.

“Seattle’s buildings provide one of the greatest opportunities to generate energy savings and boost economic development for the city. This new program will help building owners take a key step toward increasing building energy efficiency, which, in turn, helps lower operating costs, makes buildings more competitive and creates good local jobs,” said Department of Planning and Development Director Diane Sugimura.

Reinsurance expert witnesses may opine on reinsurance contracts, reinsurers, and reinsurance policies. Legaldictionary.com defines reinsurance:

A reinsurance contract is a contract of indemnity, meaning that it becomes effective only when the insurance company has made a payment to the original policyholder. Reinsurance provides a way for the insurance company to protect itself from financial disaster and ruin by passing on the risk to other companies. Reinsurance redistributes or diversifies the risk or threat associated with the business of issuing policies by allowing the reinsured to show more assets by reducing its reserve requirements. The reinsurance industry became more popular during the late 1990s and early 2000s because natural disasters and mass tort litigation resulted in large payouts by insurance companies. Because of the large size of the payments, some insurance companies became insolvent.

Read more: legaldictionary.com.

Trucking expert witnesses may write reports and testify on federal motor carrier safety regulations, truck maintenance, qualifications of truck drivers, and related topics. Transport Topics reports that the The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will publish its revised hours-of-service rule by Oct. 28, not the July 26 deadline previously set by a court, it said in a court filing.

The agency submitted four studies on driver fatigue for public comment earlier this month, two of which were published in April, it said in a report to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit May 20. It then reopened the comment period for its proposal, which will now close June 8.

Read more: ttnews.com.

In FRAUD FILES: Expert witness selection: substance over form, Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, CFF, writes:

These days, it’s not uncommon for organizations to exist simply to generate revenue. They may offer a “certificate,” but a close examination could reveal that it’s nothing more than a “credential” that someone can purchase. It is important to look at how a certificate or credential is conferred, and confirm that the expert indeed has demonstrated some level of skill and has earned it.

In the fields of fraud and forensic accounting, Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) are the gold standard for certifications, and have strict requirements for obtaining the credentials. These are obviously very valuable to your case.