Expert Witness Blog

In Composers as Expert Witnesses in Copyright Infringement Suits Erica Muhl, a Professor of Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, shares her experiences as a composer who is called upon to be an expert witness in copyright infringement suits involving suspected unlicensed use of a piece of music, and discusses why there are a handful of composers in the USA who are well suited to the task. See: artisthouseinterview.

Insurance expert witnesses may write reports and testify on insurance regulations, insurance claims, and medical insurance. In Did You Know That An IME Provider Can Be Liable To The Insured? Vivian Persand, Esq. discusses how someone hired by the insurer in connection with the investigation of your client’s claim can also have obligations to your client. Specifically, a medical provider hired to conduct an Independent Medical Examination (“IME”) can be liable to an injured insured for breach of a duty. See In Ritchie v. Krasner, M.D., et al., 211 P.3d 1272 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2009).

Read more: http://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/.

Insurance claims expert witnesses may opine on insurance companies, bad faith, liability insurance, and related topics. In When Insurers Hide Behind their Experts in Texas,

Sergio V. Leal, Esq. writes:

One strategy insurance companies use to avoid bad faith liability is claiming that they reasonably relied on their experts’ reports to deny a claim. Texas law on bad faith states that an insurer breaches its duty of good faith when: (1) denies or delays payment of a claim for which liability is reasonably clear, and (2) the insurer knew or should have known that liability was reasonably clear. Therefore, insurance companies often argue that because their retained experts concluded that there was no valid insurance claim, liability was not reasonably clear and they should not be found liable for bad faith. Courts typically side with insurance companies on this issue, but sometimes the facts of a case require courts to doubt this argument, just as the Texas Supreme Court did in State Farm Lloyds v. Nicolau, 951 S.W.2d 444 (Tex. 1997).

Automotive braking expert witnesses may opine on brake failure, brake trouble, and related topics. In How well do you know your brakes? Peter D. duPre, iCARumba’s Content Editor, gives tips that will help you stop safely and alert you to possible brake problems:

Pulsating pedal — If the pedal pulsates under your foot as you come to a normal stop, such as at a traffic light, you’ve probably got warped front rotors and need to have them repaired. On vehicles equipped with ABS, you may notice a rapidly pulsating pedal under hard braking. This is normal and is the car’s way of telling you that the ABS system is activated. But if you feel the pulsating during normal slow speed stops, get the brake system looked at by a professional as soon as possible.

Pulling to one side — If the vehicle pulls to one side when the brakes are applied, you may have a sticking front caliper. This can be extremely dangerous during inclement weather driving conditions and should be fixed immediately. Sometimes, though, the pulling is caused by uneven tire pressures, so check the air pressure before deciding the brakes are bad.

Business income claims expert witnesses may advise on issues involving loss of revenue, insurance fraud, and related issues. Here Bruce D. Smith, CPA and certified fraud examiner explains:

What is a Forensic Accounting?

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) explains that, “Forensic accounting is the use of professional accounting skills in matters involving potential or actual civil litigation. The word “forensic” is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “used in or suitable to courts of law or public debate.” More simply put forensic accounting is litigation support involving accounting.

In How we created an almost paperless real estate expert office, real estate expert witness Merrie Turner Lightner writes on shared virtual work spaces:

The skeleton of our virtual workspace is Central Desktop. Case documents are uploaded just once and reside in a secure virtual library, hugely reducing paper waste and the time required to make repetitive paper copies. Email discussions are posted in this virtual workspace instead of being sent to individual mailboxes. A centralized location for files, discussions, databases and task lists allows Ms. Lightner’s clients and experts to access critical data and information – 24×7 with only a web browser and internet connection.

Team members can even create and revise Word and Excel documents stored on the Central Desktop site, from directly within Microsoft Office. Users document and organize, link and reorganize their research. They can also create custom databases for storing information, and stream-lining the work flow of their business information documentation. Important too, Central Desktop provides a time ticket function for billing purposes, as well as a calendaring system that’s integrated with Microsoft Outlook. These are just a few of the available built-in tools for day-to-day usage. Because Central Desktop is very flexible, we can customize each client’s virtual workspace on a case-by-case basis.

Medical insurance expert witnesses may provide testimony regarding managed care, HMOs, and related topics. Here, the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents reports:

The U.S. Senate fell six votes short on November 29 in a bid to repeal a provision of the healthcare law requiring businesses of all sizes, as well as governments and nonprofits, to file a 1099 form with the Internal Revenue Service reporting any purchases they make of goods or services of $600 or more in a tax year from any individual or business, including corporations.

Read more: National Association of Professional Insurance Agents.

In Accident Reconstruction of Low Speed Impacts, accident reconstruction and automotive engineering expert witness writes:

Low speed impacts represent substantial number of accident-related claims and deserve attention of experts in the accident reconstruction field. Low speed impacts often occur at the intersections when a moving car rear-ends a stationary vehicle which has already stopped for a light or about to resume its motion after the light turned green. In auto accident reconstruction terms, the moving car (often the one that rear-ends the stationary vehicle) is called the “bullet” and the stationary vehicle is called the “target”.

Determining the amount of energy transferred from bullet vehicle to target vehicle in a real world crash has often been attempted by applying data compiled in crash testing. This is frequently problematic for a number of reasons. First, these crash tests are conducted with a vehicle and a fixed barrier, not with the moving vehicles. Second, these crash tests also cannot be applied to low-speed impacts because the crash testing is routinely performed at speeds exceeding 30 mph, making it impossible to extrapolate the crush values to lower speed collisions.