Expert Witness Blog

Insurance claims expert witnesses may opine on insurance policy interpretation, insurance fraud, and related topics. In 8 Great Ways to Get Busted for Auto Insurance Fraud, Insurance.com writes:

8. Buy insurance for a loss you already had.

This is one of the all-time classics. You’ve been meaning to get comprehensive coverage for awhile now, but never got around to it. Unfortunately, a tree branch just fell on your car, breaking the windshield and severely denting the hood. So, you call your auto insurance company and add comprehensive coverage, then file a claim a few days later. The problem? During the investigation, the SIU finds out you started calling body shops to get estimates before you had comprehensive coverage. Not a good situation for you.

Marketing strategy expert witnesses may write reports and opine on branding, market studies, market analysis, and related topics. Here, WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association describes common types of word of mouth marketing.

This is not a complete list — we’re publishing it as a means to begin a dialog toward standardization, and we welcome your comments. (Not everyone agrees that each of these should be part of word of mouth marketing, and many marketers use different terms to describe them.)

Buzz Marketing: Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand.

Mass media expert witnesses may opine on mass media, music, television, and social media. In No “R” in Social Media, Tom Morse, Media Communications Association Central Carolina Chapter President writes:

Many organizations use applications such as Google Analytics or SAS® Customer Intelligence to monitor web traffic and gain valuable business insights. For organizations without such capabilities, there are still many ways to track and measure the business value of social media. Regardless of the channel, a strong call to action can drive traffic back to where engagement can be turned into leads and sales. In some cases it might be a unique 800 number, hotlink, promotional code, or email address that delivers prospects to where tracking and conversions can be done – a call center or company website. These simple techniques, some would call them old school, have long proven effective. Regardless of whether the engagement begins on a syndicated blog, Facebook, or Twitter, prospects can be engaged in a way that can provide meaningful information.

Read more: http://www.mca-i.org/

In Construction Hazards – Early Identification and Risk Control, electrical expert witness Gregory W. Miller, P.E., B.S.E.E, writes:

1. Identifying the Hazards – This is the first step. It includes walking the project site and meeting with the project and design engineers to get a handle on the scope and activities associated with the project. A well-developed HIP will provide the safety professional with the ability to target his questions and focus his initial investigation into the high-rate hazards. Typical questions covered by the HIP include:

What existing hazards exist at or near the site? Power lines? Pipelines? Nearby population & traffic?

In Standard for Technical Rescue, rescue expert witness Gerald M. Dworkin, Lifesaving Resources Inc., writes:

If lifeguards are trained in CPR and AED for the Professional Rescuer, then it would be negligent not to provide them with the equipment used within those training programs, namely AEDs and Bag-Valve-Mask Resuscitators, among other things. Drowning is a hypoxic event. The only effective way to treat hypoxia in a victim of respiratory and/or cardiac distress or arrest while waiting for the arrival of EMS personnel is to provide positive pressure ventilation (PPV) using a personal resuscitation mask or an appropriately sized bag-valve-mask (BVM) resuscitator along with supplemental oxygen administration. While the use of a personal resuscitation mask provides for the administration of 16 percent oxygen from atmospheric air, the use of a bag-valve-mask will provide the patient with 21 percent oxygen from atmospheric air. And, by attaching an oxygen tank and regulator flowing oxygen at 15 liters per minute, the rescuer will then be providing the patient with 100 percent oxygen.

Read more: www.lifesaving.com.

In The I.S.O. Pollution Exclusion: How Far Does It Go?, insurance expert witness Dale C. Crawford writes:

Anyone involved in insurance dispute resolution will sooner or later come across an issue involving pollution exclusions. Most carriers-even those operating on a non-admitted basis-use the Insurance Services Office standard form. Typically, the conflict will be whether a cause of loss falls within the exclusionary language.

When these exclusions first evolved in the early 1970s, those active in the industry at the time will recall the two significant features addressed. The first was that damage from pollution was excluded unless it was sudden and accidental; second, the focus was on costs to remediate air, land or water damaged by the pollutants. Thus the intentional polluter who contaminated large land areas or streams over many years or habitually released noxious airborne chemicals would not have coverage for the costs of cleanup. Insurers soon found that the requirement for sudden and accidental was often given wide latitude in favor of coverage. The different terms adopted across the industry were gradually tightened and narrowed into more standard forms, ultimately resulting in a standard ISO form in 1985 with an absolute exclusion.

Media expert witnesses may opine on mass media, music, television, and social media. In No “R” in Social Media Tom Morse, Media Communications Association Central Carolina Chapter President writes:

Even without use of spell checker, I know there isn’t an “R” in social media. But, communications professionals need to understand the return, and how they will evaluate the return, on investments in social media.

Measuring ROI for social media is part of the job. Social media is about more than just engagement and awareness. While social media is at the top of the sales funnel, there are still many ways to track and evaluate the return on investment. The process should begin with an agreement on how the organization will define the “R” in ROI is it awareness, leads, conversions, sales? Evaluation of social media is less about what can be done than what should be done. Identify the evaluation criteria, and then secure agreement with sales enablement and business executives on how social media will be evaluated. At this point in our understanding of social media, the criteria will be different from other activities such as advertising, trade shows, or speaking engagements. But, establish some criteria and process for assessing the payoff on investments in social media.

Marketing expert witnesses may write reports and opine on branding, market studies, market analysis, and related topics. The American Marketing Association Board of Directors defines marketing as the “activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” and marketing research.

Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information–information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the findings and their implications.

Read more: marketingpower.com.