ARTICLES

9/11/2017· Construction

Common Sense Strategies for Avoiding Construction Litigation

By: Jeffrey P. Weinstein

ln our current climate of economic prosperity and rising real estate values, the prevalence and usefulness of construction litigation may be on the wane. Much of the litigation and expert opinion in recent years has resulted in unrealistic repair schemes for the sole purpose of producing a settlement among parties to the litigation. When a plaintiff expert recommends a "remove and replace in its entirety"1 scenario (for example, arguing that all exterior stucco must be demolished and reinstalled due to a lack of expansion joints), the defense expert frequently advocates a more modest "fix what's broken" scheme to provide a minimum repair at the lowest cost. This process consumes considerable time and resources, and creates a difficult environment in which to craft a settlement. More often than not, neither party is pleased with the outcome; unreasonable plaintiff positions often result in settlement amounts ranging between 15 to 25 percent of the claim amount.

9/8/2017· Human Resources

Medical Marijuana Concerns for Employers

By: Timothy Dimoff

Medical marijuana is now legal in many states and many other states are considering legalizing it. This creates a host of issues and questions, legal and otherwise, that employers must address. This also affects workplace issues and policies. And since each state is different, how do you know how your state laws vs. federal laws affect the issue? It is confusing but this is an area where it is critically important to understand and to act accordingly.

9/7/2017· Accounting

A Forensic Engagement

By: Michael D. Pakter

Mr. Bad Actor is a 61–year-old male who is the senior executive of the Unlucky Transportation Company. He has been in that position for more than ten years. Before his employment at the company, he worked for a series of unsuccessful transportation companies, where both he and other stakeholders lost most of their investment. He has ongoing legal and financial problems resulting from these prior business failures and from his failed marriage.

9/6/2017· Failure Analysis

Liquid Impact Glass Failure Analysis

By: Dr. Thomas Read

As "water hammer" (i.e. liquid impact) has the potential to cause glass bottle failure, Read Consulting LLC created two such failures to study the resulting fracture surface details.

9/6/2017· Accident Investigation & Reconstruction

Case Study: Retained by Plaintiff Injured Motorist

By: Richard Beaubien

A motorist exiting a rural freeway was struck by a motorist on the intersecting State Route at the top of the exit ramp. At the westbound exit ramp from the Interstate freeway the State Route a stop sign is posted at the end of the ramp requiring exiting traffic to stop before entering the State Route. However, the eastbound off ramp traffic is not required to stop before entering the State Route. A stop sign is posted on southbound State Route at the ramp terminal. This is an unusual traffic signing pattern for interstate off ramps. Expert observations of the operation of this intersection showed that a large proportion of the eastbound off ramp traffic slowed down at the end of the ramp, expecting to stop at the State Route.

8/31/2017· Accounting

Preventing Fraud in Troubled Companies

By: Robert Bates

Economic downturns and recessions are notorious for encouraging fraud. As new and prospective fraud examiners, it's imperative that you become aware of the various fraud risks that can occur and the red flags that indicate a fraud in progress.

8/30/2017· Audio Forensics

Forensic Sound Analyses of Cellular Telephone Recordings

By: Dr. Durand R. Begault

Recordings involving cellular telephones or personal digital assistants (“PDAs”) are increasingly the source evidence in audio forensic examinations, compared to recordings originating with other devices such as hand-held digital recorders. On modern PDA cellular telephones recordings can be made either directly to the telephone or transmitted as voice mail messages. The current investigation focuses on differences in the two types of recordings in terms of dynamic range and linearity of levels. Such information can be important for characterizing the distance of sound sources relative to the microphone and are important for understanding transformation of recorded speech and non-speech sounds.

8/30/2017· Warnings & Labels

Close The Revolving Door

By: Dr. Gerald M. Goldhaber

Regulatory agencies (e.g., FDA, OSHA, CPSC, NHTSA, etc.) exist to serve and protect the public from bad actors in the corporate or industrial world whose decisions and actions may lead to products or services that could potentially harm or kill workers and consumers. It would seem obvious, therefore, that the leaders of these agencies would be strong, neutral and objective regulators without close ties to the very industries they must regulate. Under such a model, the best interests of the public could be served without concern for the profits of the regulated industries. Unfortunately, as anyone who reads any newspaper knows too well, that model has never been true. In fact, since the creation of virtually every regulatory agency, the leadership of these agencies have either come from or exited to the very industries they were to regulate.

8/28/2017· Insurance

The Expert Dilemma

By: Guy C. Hatfield

I have been active as an insurance agent/broker for 40 years. 20 years ago I was referred to an attorney by a fellow CPCU colleague to be a so called "expert". The case involved an agent who failed to provide workers compensation benefits to an ongoing commercial concern. I was hired by the plaintiff's attorney to opine on the conduct of the agent. Since this was a fundamental error on the part of the agent, the case was soon settled in favor of the plaintiff. This was my introduction to being an expert. I found I enjoyed the experience and it was a nice contrast to sales and insurance administration.

8/24/2017· Automotive - Vehicular

Autonomous and Inevitable, Part 8: Access and Accountability

By: Ned Einstein

What is interesting, and the focus of this installment, is the glaring disparity between the magnitude of information available about a vehicle or driver's performance and the general disinterest in examining it. This disparity is not a technological problem. It is largely an institutional and attitudinal problem. Or one might characterize it as a cultural problem. Or a values problem in a money-oriented society. Nevertheless, it raises an important point about driverless vehicles: While a vehicle's brain may contribute to and/or improve safety (fewer accidents and incidents) and performance (e.g., better mileage, less pollution), this brain's extraordinary analytical capabilities may be pointless because no non-robot is likely to ever examine the data.