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In 7 Habits of Highly Successful Surveys, marketing experts at Vovic Corporation write on surveying the right number of people:

Some might consider a “census approach” to surveying, attempting to gather feedback from 100% of the population. Others take a “sampling approach”. If you are thinking of taking a census approach with your survey, consider:

• The census approach works best for populations under 1,000 individuals • It may require you to utilize incentives to boost response to the appropriate level • Make sure you invite all respondents • Use reminders and deadlines to ensure highest response rates among your population A sampling approach may be more effective for your situation. Some of the benefits of a sampling approach are as follows:

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Wrongful death expert witness Barry Gustin, MD, MPH, FAAEP, writes on avoiding medical malpractice when patients are handed off to other physicians:

When patients are transferred from one doctor to another, or from an outpatient setting to a hospital or nursing home, there is an increased chance of a serious mishap that can lead to a medical malpractice lawsuit. Who is ultimately found liable for fumbling the patient handoff may be up to a jury to decide years after the event. Plaintiffs’ attorneys generally will sue everyone involved in the patients’ care – at least initially — regardless of their degree of accountability, until the facts are clear.

Problems with handoff communication are listed as one of the root causes in up to 70% of adverse sentinel events compiled by the Joint Commission. The potential for something to go wrong — needed follow-up care that slips through the cracks or vital information that isn’t communicated in a timely fashion — can have life or death impact for patients. It’s also a leading driver of malpractice lawsuits against health professionals.

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Trucking industry expert witnesses may opine on the transportation and logistics industry. Here the American Trucking Association describes how trucks are responsible for the majority of freight movement over land, and are vital tools in the manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing industries.

With as many as 750,000 interstate motor carriers in the United States, the trucking industry is the driving force behind the U.S. economy. Trucking does the heavy lifting to move, through the supply chain, nearly everything we consume or use. Few Americans realize, however, that trucks deliver 70 percent of all freight tonnage or that 80 percent of U.S. communities receive their goods exclusively by truck. Even fewer know that the motor carrier industry provides jobs and generates significant personal income and tax revenue.

It takes nearly 9 million people to move about 11 billion tons of freight annually. Trucking collects more than $650 billion in revenue and represents about 5 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product. One out of every 13 people working in the private sector in the United States is employed in a trucking-related job across manufacturing, retail, public utility, construction, service, transportation, mining and agricultural sectors. Of those, 3.5 million are commercial drivers, averaging $50,000 annually. Some earn well above $100,000 per year.

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In Insurance 101 – Property – Casualty Basics, the American Insurance Association writes:

Risk has two key dimensions- frequency and severity-and both help determine insurability. Frequency relates to how often a loss occurs, i.e., whether the risk/event is common or relatively rare. Severity relates to how costly losses resulting from that risk could be, i.e., whether they could be relatively inexpensive or truly catastrophic in nature. insurance can be an appropriate method of risk transfer for low-frequency, high-severity losses (e.g., house fires or tornadoes), as well as for high-frequency, low-severity losses (e.g., motor vehicle crashes). However, insurance may not be the most appropriate method for treating all risks facing individuals and businesses.

For example, insurance could be too expensive for certain risks (low-frequency, low-severity) or unavailable for other risks (such as high-frequency, high-severity risks, or risks whose frequency and/or severity is difficult to predict, such as terrorism). Additionally, insurance may be unable to fully compensate for a loss (e.g., the destruction of family photos, which have great emotional value but little financial value).

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Emission requirements expert Kevin Dukesherer, owner of Progressive Transportation Services and founding member of The Clean Truck Coalition, said in a July 8 Op-Ed in The Daily Breeze that “Those interested in truly helping truck drivers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach should advocate relatively quick and easy improvements to drayage operations at marine terminals, not an act of Congress.”

Congressional Aides last week visited the Port of Los Angeles as part of a U.S. House of Representatives committee review of the Clean Trucks Program. The two-day tour, however, had little to do with their clean air achievements and instead focused on the thousands of independent owner operators hauling freight from the port, Dukesherer said.

The Clean Trucks Program has been extremely successful, reducing emissions from drayage trucks by 80 percent in just two years. Despite these results, the Teamsters union and their allies at the Port of Los Angeles continue to claim that independent owner operators can not sustain the environmental gains achieved under the program. The Teamsters have pushed for a change in federal transportation law that would give local ports the authority to regulate the trucking industry, with the goal of making it easier to organize the workforce.

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Marketing strategy expert witnesses may opine on market analysis, market barriers, market research, and market share. Here, marketing strategy experts at the American Marketing Association (AMA) and ReadyTalk offer Web Event Best Practices:

A successful web event can help strengthen a company’s brand awareness, increase exposure in the market, and generate qualified sales leads. If done right, it can elevate an organization’s credibility and reinforce its position as an industry thought leader. However, running a high-profile web event can be intimidating and challenging.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) and ReadyTalk have produced hundreds of effective web events and have learned that the best results are achieved through advanced planning and treating web events with the same care traditionally reserved for in-person events.

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Trucking expert witnesses may opine on the trucking industry and trucking and transportation rules and regulations. The American Trucking Associations website reports that:

The Missouri State Highway Patrol recently teamed up with NASCAR’s Roush Fenway Racing team and Con-way Freight to kick off a statewide safety campaign against texting while driving, according to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The safety campaign’s logo will also be displayed on Con-way Freight’s No. 16 Ford Fusion race car driven by Colin Braun, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat said.

“Anybody can drive a vehicle if they’re focused on it 100 percent,” Braun said. “As a race car driver I don’t [text] while I’m racing, and I don’t do it in my personal car. I know I can’t do it safely, and I’ve got quick reflexes compared to a lot of people on the road.” Missouri became the 23rd state to adopt a ban on texting in August of 2009, when the state made it illegal for drivers under the age of 21 to text while driving, said the Missouri DOT website. However, the newly launched safety campaign advocates that all drivers – regardless of age – refrain from texting while driving.

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Two police procedures expert witnesses with Force Science backgrounds are believed to have been influential in a jury’s recent decision to reject a murder conviction of a former transit officer accused of deliberately shooting an unarmed suspect in the back during a handcuffing scuffle.

The witnesses, Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute, and retired LAPD captain Greg Meyer, a certified Force Science Analyst, testified in detail how a combination of inadequate training and psychological stress phenomena most likely led to a tragic accident in which the officer mistakenly drew his sidearm instead of his X26 Taser while trying to restrain the struggling suspect. The prosecution had claimed the incident was one of intentional homicide by an out-of-control cop.

“This case,” Lewinski told Force Science News, “is a classic illustration of powerful forces beyond an officer’s conscious awareness that can shape a threatening encounter. These forces may not be readily evident even to unbiased witnesses, but in a matter of seconds they can change the lives of those involved forever.”

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Metropolitan News-Enterprise reports a trial court erred in removing plaintiffs’ medical malpractice expert witness in a trial on the basis that defense counsel’s representation of the doctor 10 years earlier created an irreconcilable conflict of interest, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled on July 16th.

Div. Three said prophylactic removal was unnecessary where the expert waived any conflict arising out of the previous representation, so long as that waiver was unequivocal.

Orange Superior Court Commissioner Janet C. Pesak disqualified board-certified plastic surgeon John M. Shamoun from testifying against physician Mark Knight in a suit over a liposuction he performed on Laura Montgomery. Montgomery sued Knight in 2007, alleging she was injured by the procedure, and her husband, Douglas, brought a claim for loss of consortium.

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Insurance expert witnesses may opine on insurance customs, insurance practices, malpractice insurance, surplus insurance and more. Here the Surplus Line Association of Illinois answers the question: What is surplus line insurance?

Since this insurer is not licensed in your state, they are not regulated by your state’s Department of Insurance in the same way licensed insurers are regulated (they are, however, regulated in the state or country where they are domiciled or located). Since they are not strictly regulated by your state, they are generally free from the form or rate regulations imposed on licensed insurers. This gives them the freedom to maintain broader internal guidelines for accepting risks. They have more flexibility to design and price their policies and can, therefore, accept risks that licensed insurers will not.

In many states, including Illinois, the licensed surplus line producer is required to ascertain that the insurer meets certain financial standards before buying a policy from them. In many other states the Department of Insurance, or some other authority, monitors the financial condition of surplus line insurers and maintains a list of insurers that surplus line producers are allowed to use. Whether done by the surplus line producer, the state Department of Insurance, or some other entity, this financial monitoring is an important function because if the insurer were to fail (go bankrupt), there is no guaranty fund protection for you.

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