Expert Witness Blog

A transportation safety expert witness testified in the case against General Motors brought by the parents of Brooke Melton. The expert reported that information recorded in the black box in the fatal accident showed the key had slipped from the “on” to the “accessory” position three seconds before the accident, shutting off her power steering and power brakes.

On April 1, 2014, General Motors’ CEO Mary Barra will testify before a congressional subcommittee about the widening safety recall on GM pre-2008 ignition switches. Ignition switches moving from the “run” position to the “accessory” or “off” position during a crash may disable the air bag sensing system. The recall follows 12 deaths and 31 crashes in 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalts, 2003-07 Saturn Ions and several other pre-2008 models with the same ignition switch. As a precaution, NHTSA urges owners of recalled GM vehicles – 2005-07 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2007 Pontiac G5, 2003-07 Saturn Ion, 2006-07 Chevrolet HHR, 2006-07 Pontiac Solstice, 2007 Saturn Sky – to follow GM recommendation to “use only the ignition key with nothing else on the key ring” and get repairs as soon as parts are available from GM.

Here is the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation TQ 14-001:

Security management expert witness Randy Atlas, Phd, AIA, CPP, contributed to the article The Role of Buildings in Mass Shootings, Strategies to decrease workplace homicides which appeared in Buildings Magazine. The expert is president of Atlas Safety & Security Design Inc. and notes that “It’s a big deal for an architectural magazine to focus on the problems of building security.” The article is written by Jennie Morton, senior editor of BUILDINGS.

An armed intruder approaches your building – what kind of resistance will they encounter?

Effective access control, automated communication, and rehearsed emergency plans are your best defenses against workplace violence. These measures may not prevent an aggressor from entering your building, but they will create necessary delays in a situation where every second counts.

In Child Abuse Pediatrician’s Role, Child Abuse Pediatrics & Forensic Medicine Experts explains failure to thrive.

Failure to Thrive is a condition whereby children either do not receive or are unable to properly utilize adequate nutrition for sufficient growth. There are two categories of causality for Failure to Thrive: organic and non-organic. Organic Failure to Thrive is the type caused by medical conditions. Non-organic Failure to Thrive is caused by either insufficient provision of food, or complex psychosocial factors that impair a child’s ability to accept food provided. Psychosocial Failure to Thrive has complex dynamics and may be classified as child abuse or neglect.

What are Medical Causes of Failure to Thrive?

In OSHA Standards Changing: The standard that gave workers the right to know, now gives them the right to understand construction site expert witness William Gulya, Jr., President & CEO, Middlesex Trenching Company, writes:

As an Expert in OSHA safety standards, regulations and compliance, it is vital I keep up with the most current trends and changes that are proposed and implemented. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) main principle to date has been that employees have the “right to know” about the hazardous chemicals they work with. It is my understanding that OSHA is now implementing a newly revised Hazard Communication Standard to be consistent with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). Therefore, effective December 1, 2013 OSHA is requiring that employees have the “right to understand,” and the employer must provide proof of this “understanding” to those employees.

Up to now employers training their employees regarding the knowledge of the materials they work with has been enough. Companies provided their employees with hazardous chemical training and then tested them on their knowledge of this training, which method satisfied the federal requirements. Starting December 2013, one-time testing of the employees’ understanding will not be enough. The employer will be responsible for showing proof that their hazardous chemical training is clearly achieving this compliance.

Child sexual assault expert witnesses may consult regarding sexual misconduct, sexual molestation, and child sexual abuse. Child Abuse Pediatrics & Forensic Medicine Experts explain the Child Abuse Pediatrician’s Role.

The child abuse pediatrician’s clinical role is to provide objective, comprehensive, evidence-based and patient centered care for children and adolescents with suspected sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect or unexpected child fatalities. Child abuse is a serious medical diagnosis requiring careful and comprehensive evaluations in addition to consideration of collaborative input from protective and investigative sources. In order to diagnose child abuse, it is imperative to consider alternative medical, accidental, or birth related diagnoses and use evidence-based standards when generating opinions.

Here are some helpful resources:

Environmental expert witnesses may write reports and testify on environmental forensics, environmental health and safety, and environmental impact studies, EPA regulation, water pollution and more. The State Department released the Keystone XL pipeline environmental review last month and the report forecast that the project would have minimal environmental impact. This week the inspector general found that the review was not biased and was handled properly. The project would connect tar sands oil in Canada to refineries in Texas.

The proposed Keystone XL project consists of a 875-mile long pipeline and related facilities to transport up to 830,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Alberta, Canada and the Bakken Shale Formation in Montana. The pipeline would cross the U.S. border near Morgan, Montana and continue through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska where it would connect to existing pipeline facilities near Steele City, Nebraska, for onward delivery to Cushing, Oklahoma, and the Gulf Coast area.

On February 26, 2014, the Dept. of State issued:

Securities expert witnesses may consult and testify on securities regulation, securities fraud, and the securities industry. This month the SEC charged Wall Street traders Thomas Gonnella and Ryan King with a fraudulent “parking” scheme in which one trader temporarily placed securities in the other’s trading book. Gonnella arranged for King, who worked at a different firm, to purchase several securities with the understanding that Gonnella would repurchase them at a profit for King’s firm.

The alleged round-trip trades caused Gonnella’s firm to lose approximately $174,000. The SEC’s Enforcement Division alleges that after Gonnella’s supervisor began inquiring about the trades, Gonnella and King took steps to evade detection by interposing an interdealer broker in subsequent transactions and communicating by cell phone to avoid having conversations recorded by their firms. Gonnella and King were eventually fired by their firms for the misconduct.

SEC Press Release 2014-24 …King, who has cooperated with the SEC investigation, agreed to settle the charges by disgorging his profits and being barred from the securities industry. Any additional financial penalties will be determined at a later date. The Enforcement Division’s litigation against Gonnella continues in a proceeding before an administrative law judge.