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Florida state health regulators have imposed an emergency license restriction on Dr. Zannos Grekos for using experimental stem cell therapy on a breast cancer patient in his Bonita Springs practice last year, resulting in the woman’s death, according to the state’s order.

“The use of unorthodox stem cell transfusions for diseases that have shown no benefit can be extremely dangerous…” a medical expert witness retained by the state Department of Health said about the Grekos case involving the breast cancer patient. “I felt that his care was substandard and dangerous.”

Read more: naplenews.com.

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In When the Phone Rings … Twelve Questions for Prospective Expert Witness Assignments, risk management expert witness Kevin M. Quinley, CPCU, ARM, AIC, writes:
(11) When is it likely that expert depositions would be taken? Have dates been set? If not, would my deposition likely be taken in the next 30 days? Sixty days? Ninety days? This can be handy to know in terms of your own preparation, especially in conjunction with the amount of documents or materials you may need to review on a given case. A compressed time frame may also impact your fee structure, based on the idea that rush jobs cost more and merit premium pricing. Ask if the court has entered a scheduling order and, if so, determine the deadlines for depositions.

Kevin M. Quinley is a leading authority on insurance issues, including risk management, claims, bad faith, coverages and litigation management. He is the author of more than 600 articles and 10 books. You can reach him through http://www.insuranceexpertnetwork.com/.

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In Important Issues of Business Valuations For Attorneys and Their Clients finance expert witness Richard Teichner, CPA, CVA, CDFAJ, writes:

Certain Terms Applying to Valuations

To aid the attorney and client during the process of establishing a business value, the following is a summary of some of the terms that generally apply to valuations:

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In What the Defendant Can Do Wrong, security management and risk management expert witness Ira Somerson, BCFE, CPP, CSC, writes that “failing to preface your security plan with a risk assessment would violate standard security industry practices. If your risk assessment lacks sufficient qualitative (unscientific) or quantitative (scientific) analysis, it probably will be below a standard security industry practice.”

Standard Security Practice

The variety and causes of security risks are considerable. For that reason, some formal process must precede any security program implementation. A security program’s design needs to be based upon deterring, detecting, delaying, denying, responding to, and/or recovering from reasonably foreseeable events. The fact that anomalous events do occur should not excuse or rationalize a property owner from not first performing adequate planning. It is inevitable that a property owner will fail to recognize every risk or that an event will not occur in spite of adequate planning. But the fact that an adequate process was not used to identify the levels of risk places a property owner’s security plan in a far more egregious posture. Failing to preface your security plan with a risk assessment would violate standard security industry practices (standard of care). If your risk assessment lacks sufficient qualitative (unscientific) or quantitative (scientific) analysis, it probably will be below a standard security industry practice.

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A building engineering expert says the devastating Christchurch quake was “pretty much a bullseye.” Professor John Wilson, chair of the Australian earthquake loading standard and deputy dean of engineering at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, said the quake struck right at the heart of Christchurch.

“It was so close to Christchurch that we weren’t surprised to see significant damage, at that close range the level of shaking is quite severe.” The magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck at 12.51pm, and strong aftershocks have shaken the city since.”We expected the older buildings with unreinforced masonry to suffer — their masonry is heavy, brittle and vulnerable to earthquake shaking,” Prof Wilson said.

Read more: www.voxy.co.nz

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Medical expert witnesses may consult regarding different specialty areas of medicine including surgery, anesthesiology, independent medical exams (IMEs), cancer treatment, and related topics. A medical expert at the Weill Cornell Medical College recently published an article weighing the pros and cons of using radioactive iodine ablation after partial or total thyroidectomies. Stanley Goldsmith, director of the school’s Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, wrote in the journal Seminars in Nuclear Medicine that an individual approach should be taken when using the treatment, since different patients often have radically different symptoms.

In particular, Goldsmith said that low-risk patients – those who do not have an advanced form of thyroid cancer – may not require post-operative ablation at all, or only in low doses at most. That being said, he added that defining “low risk” can be problematic. Ablation with radioactive iodine involves taking one or a series of pills containing iodine-131, a radioactive isotope of the element.

Read more: endocrineweb.com.

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Insurance expert witnesses may opine on HMOs, property insurance, insurance regulations, and related topics. Don Brown, an authority in Florida’s property insurance market debate writes:

Florida hasn’t seen a hurricane in five years, but over that time the public has seen insurance companies filing bankruptcy, going insolvent, and leaving the state. The property insurance market has gotten so bad due to choking state regulation and suppressed rates that if a storm or fire destroys your home there’s a risk your claim won’t be paid.

There’s also a rising tide of media reports covering the sinkhole threat facing Florida’s homeowners. “Don’t believe the rhetoric that we have a sinkhole crisis in Florida, because we don’t. The more accurate assessment is we have a sinkhole claims crisis that has created a cottage industry that threatens Florida consumers,” Brown said.

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In Important Issues of Business Valuations For Attorneys and Their Clients finance expert witness Richard Teichner, CPA, CVA, CDFAJ, writes:

Depending on the reason for the valuation, there are various factors that need to be considered, some of which are contained in the descriptions of the terms listed below. If an independent business valuation expert is called upon to assist in establishing a value and/or opine to a value, he or she must have access to all relevant information to be able to determine which factors apply in the particular situation. The attorney and client need to allow and encourage open communication between themselves and the valuator. Too often the intentions of the parties are not apparent, understood or properly articulated, and the facts and circumstances surrounding the true purpose of the valuation are not adequately disclosed. Also, the valuator should know the identities of all the parties to, and affected by, the valuation. Certainly, the valuator has a responsibility to seek all information necessary to do a thorough job, but all other parties involved have to be willing to collaborate in the effort of providing whatever information they and the valuator may deem to be pertinent.

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JurisPro, Inc., the expert witness directory formed by a group of practicing attorneys, celebrates its 11th year. JurisPro, Inc. (www.JurisPro.com) is a professional marketing company that maintains a free online directory of over 1600 expert witnesses. At JurisPro, you can read the expert’s CV, see their photo, learn their background, hear them speak, and contact them by phone, email, fax, or mail.

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Liability policies expert witnesses may testify regarding insurance loss claims, insurance policy coverage, liability policies, and related topics. In The Insurer’s Duty to Defend: A Quick Analysis, attorney Thomas H. Veitch, partner with the law firm of Langley & Banack, Inc. in San Antonio, writes:

The duty to defend is distinct from and broader than the duty to indemnify.

Even though a duty to defend exists, there may be no duty to indemnify.

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