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In Art Is For All: A Brief Look At Art Collecting Through The Ages, personal property valuation expert witness and owner of Thomas Charles Editions of Phoenix, AZ, Lisa A. Barnes, writes on how art is valued:

Conventional wisdom has it that all areas of art collecting can occasionally suffer eclipses but eventually return to favor. From the collector’s point of view, the theoretical solution has always been simply to buy “good art,” works that will transcend the whims of fashion and stand the tests of time. This lead us to the inevitable questions; what makes art good, and who gets to decide? It is probably safe to say that technical achievement in art will always be valued, and will always be rediscovered. Beyond that, there is only educated opinion – and it is constantly changing.

There are simply no eternal verities in art. A Rembrandt may be worth more than a Murillo, yet prices for works by Old Masters, however rare their appearance on the market, have lagged behind Contemporary American artists and the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. During the 1980’s, a Jackson Pollock sold for more than a Rembrandt or a Leonardo Da Vinci. In 1986, a single Jasper Johns, “Out the Window,” painted in 1959, sold for $3.63 million, the exact same amount as Da Vinci’s “Lamb,” one of two authenticated works still in private hands. It was private buyers that changed the rules…

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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has become an important tool for hydrology and groundwater expert witnesses. An especially useful application of GIS concerns water quality in groundwater. In the case of groundwater contamination and the need for subsequent containment and cleanup of the contaminant, an existing framework of the groundwater system would be valuable in planning remediation measures.

An example concerning the use of GIS addresses a common problem associated with groundwater pumping and land subsidence or intrusion in coastal areas. Areas that have been overpumped of groundwater can subside, and when near the sea, this may invite flooding. Also, overpumping of groundwater in coastal regions may bring a different problem, such as the case in California where salt-water intrusion has compromised the aquifer. Generally, a salt water interface inland of the coast extends below the land surface dependent on the distance from the coast. Overpumping can bring the salt water interface to a higher position and contaminate an aquifer.

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In Robertson v. Princeton, descendants of donor Marie Robertson and her husband, Princeton class of 1926 alumnus Charles Robertson, sued Princeton University to redirect the funds she gave to create the Robertson Foundation for the benefit of Princeton University in 1961. Princeton estimates that it spent more than $40 million in pre-trial costs and that a trial and appeal will cost an additional $20 million for both sides.

Princeton produced nearly half a million pages of electronic and print documents in the discovery phase of the case. Finance expert witnesses gave reports and there were more than 5,000 trial exhibits identified. The University’s defense costs not covered by insurance, will be reimbursed by the Robertson Foundation.

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Hydrology and groundwater expert witnesses can tell you that about ¼ of the water used for personal, commercial/industrial, and irrigation uses in the U.S. comes from groundwater. With increasing demands placed on surface water resources, it is likely the demand for groundwater will increase.

In some places, this resource has already been severely tapped, and even mismanaged. An example is the surface water decline in the Republican River watershed of Nebraska and Kansas where over-pumping of groundwater for irrigation in Nebraska has depleted surface water available for downstream flow and use in Kansas resulting in a lawsuit. The State of Kansas filed a complaint to the U.S. Supreme Court that claimed the State of Nebraska had violated the Republican River Compact by allowing the unimpeded development of thousands of wells in hydraulic connection with the Republican River and its tributaries. Kansas further alleged that Nebraska was using more water than its allocation.

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In Speaking English is Key to Safety construction safety expert witness Paul Gogulski, BSCE, PE, writes:

As an expert witness specializing in construction accidents, my observations include a very sensitive subject: the increased risk of accidents when a substantial number of workers on a site cannot speak the English language. Every general contractor knows the truth but few dare to openly express it: the more non-English speaking workers employed on site, the greater the risk of errors and accidents. Even when a requirement for English-speaking foremen is included in the contract, this in itself is not enough to prevent accidents attributable to the hazards created by the barriers imposed by inadequate communication…

Effective communication is a key ingredient of every construction project and is particularly vital in regard to safety issues. Practically speaking, the current policy of promoting bilingual languages as a social-engineering enterprise across a broad spectrum of the nation has a negative impact on the frequency of accidents in the construction industry. The many recent deaths in Las Vegas construction is a grim demonstration of this fact.

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In What is Forensic Psychiatry?, forensic psychiatry expert witness Dr. Jerald H. Ratner, M.D., L.F.A.P.A., F.A.B.F.E., describes the role of the forensic psychiatrist:

A psychiatrist with forensic expertise can assist attorneys, federal agencies, plaintiffs, defendants, and the courts to evaluate claims for psychiatric damages, disability and competency.

A psychiatrist with forensic experience is a physician who integrates clinical experience, knowledge of medicine, mental health, and the neurosciences to form an independent, objective opinion. Relevant data is gathered, analyzed and synthesized as part of a process of alternative hypothesis testing to formulate an expert medical/psychiatric opinion. The expert opinion is fortified and validated by a psychiatrist who maintains a predominantly clinical practice (i.e., evaluates and treats patients on a continuous and active basis).

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In How to Create a Marketing Strategy, marketing expert witness Steven Londre gives sound advice:

In creating a marketing strategy, divide markets into meaningful customer groups (market segmentation), choose which customer groups to serve (target marketing), and create marketing offers that best serve targeted customers (positioning)…

Here’s a recommendation: Make your marketing, advertising and promotion different than your competitors. Be unique with your product mix. Successfully position your product by looking at product attributes, benefits, quality/price, high tech and high touch. And remember your target customer. Customer service is far more important than most marketing consultants give it credit. Company and brand positioning should be summed up in a positioning statement. The statement should follow this form: To (target market and need) our (brand or store or service) is (concept) that (point of difference).

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Millions of young athletes participating in organized sports programs suffer serious concussions, many of which go unidentified by volunteer coaches and parents…The CDC estimates that approximately 135,000 youngsters between the ages of 5-18 visit hospital emergency rooms for brain injuries every year. Accident reconstruction expert witness C. J. Abraham interviewed former middle school and high school football players who were paraplegics and quadriplegics to determine the causes of their horrific injuries. He became emotionally invested in their heart-breaking stories, which led to him patenting the flexible face-mask that was licensed and manufactured by Riddell in the early ’80s.

“The face-mask I invented for use with the football helmet was related to a need to reduce the risk of paralyzing injuries to young children,” Abraham says. “The steel face-mask the children were using weighed over a pound, did not absorb and dissipate forces and was much too heavy for young children. As a result, their heads and necks sagged and were prone to flexing extensively during a tackle, resulting in fractures of their spines. By cutting the weight in half and allowing the facemask to absorb and dissipate some of the impact forces, we were able to eliminate the paralyzing injuries that were caused by impact to the facemask during a tackle. Since the players started to use the facemask there have been no reported spinal injuries.”

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Structural engineering experts witnesses opine on the science and art of designing and constructing buildings, bridges, frameworks and other similar structures to safely resist the forces to which they may be subjected. Structural engineering researchers at Rice University are leading a new $1.6 million research program funded by the National Science Foundation to help design a new generation of “smart” shock absorbers for buildings and bridges in earthquake-prone areas.

To imagine what a building undergoes in an earthquake, Nagarajaiah suggests imaging yourself standing in a moving bus or train. “Riders make their bodies and muscles tense when the bus moves, and they relax as soon as the sudden motion stops,” Nagarajaiah said. “The typical steel-framed building or bridge can’t do that, but we want to find technologies like adaptive stiffness and damping systems that can give structures that ability.”

Nagarajaiah said about 100 U.S. buildings and bridges — including the famed Golden Gate Bridge — have been built or are being retrofitted with large, passive dampers, which work just like the shock absorbers in a car, using pistons and hydraulic fluid to absorb the impact of sudden shocks. But passive dampers do not have the ability to adjust their properties-such as stiffness and damping-in real time. By design, they perform the same way in every earthquake, but Nagarajaiah said quake researchers have discovered in recent years that all quakes are not created equal.

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Real Estate experts at Simplythebestloans.com write on lenders rejecting appraisals:

Appraisals: It’s about the Property, Not your Loan!

One of the newest issues with many loans today is lenders reviewing and rejecting appraisals. The appraisal is a ”defensible” and carefully documented opinion of value. Most commonly derived using recent sales of comparable properties by a licensed, professional appraiser. Since the real estate market has been extremely heated in my area, property values have soared at a rapid rate. Lender’s are beginning to question these values and whether or not they’re realistic.

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