6/20/2018· Finance
Financial Scams Part of a Wide Array of Elder Abuse Problems in the United States
By: Marguerita Cheng
With the aging of the U.S. population, financial exploitation and abuse of seniors is a serious and growing problem. According to the FBI, scammers tend to target the aging population because they are more likely to have excellent credit and substantial savings.
6/19/2018· Warnings & Labels
Criteria for Evaluating Warnings
If you do work as an expert witness on warnings, you probably feel quite confident that you know a bad warning when you see one (and would know a good one if you ever saw one). Of course, backing up our opinion with some version of, "I just know" doesn't make for very strong testimony. Indeed, we can count on our criteria being challenged by opposing council even when we can articulate them.
6/14/2018· Telecommunication
Unreasonably-low Royalties in Top-down FRAND-rate Determinations for TCL v. Ericsson
By: Keith Mallinson
While Ericsson is a leading contributor to mobile communications standards, a US District Court in California has significantly undervalued Ericsson's standard-essential patents (SEPs) by relying heavily on flawed "top-down" valuation analysis that prorates royalties by company for 2G, 3G and 4G based on SEP counting. This analysis applies a series of inaccurate assumptions which whittle down royalty rates from an understated notional maximum in a succession of unreliable steps. The resulting rates derived are a lot lower than those found in a European court's FRAND determination for the same company in the same year (2017) and for the same 2G, 3G, and 4G patent portfolios. The differences between these US and European determinations are irreconcilable.
6/7/2018· Transportation
Safety Compromises, Part 6: Failing to Pull to the Curb
By: Ned Einstein
Other than airport-to-parking lot shuttles, and an occasional tour or charter trip, all public transportation services pickup and discharge their passengers at the side of a roadway. When it is available, they pickup and discharge them from or onto a curb, sidewalk, platform or other raised surface.
6/6/2018· Laws & Procedures
By: Darryl Horowitt
California law requires that contractors obtain the proper license before work can be performed on any project. (See Business & Professions Code § 7026.) Moreover, where a contractor files a lawsuit to recover monies owed for work performed, that contractor must plead and prove it was licensed at all times that the work was performed. (See Business & Professions Code § 7031.) The penalty for failure to maintain your license is severe. If you are unable to prove that you were licensed at all times, you are barred from recovering monies on any grounds, whether it be for breach of contract, fraud, or reasonable value of the services performed. (See Hydrotech Systems, Ltd. v. Oasis Waterpark (1991) 52 Cal.3d. 988.) But what happens if a contractor is licensed for most of the time that the work is performed and inadvertently allows his license to lapse for a period during the construction of a project? This article will discuss this issue.
5/24/2018· Telecommunication
By: Keith Mallinson
Radio spectrum is the lifeblood of wireless networks. Traditional methods of doling out spectrum have somewhat hindered rather than helped maximize the availability of affordable Internet access, even if this was not the case with voice and text. Instead of seeking to aggrandize auction proceeds by creating scarcity, more flexible allocations including shared as well as traditional licensed and unlicensed assignments are required.
5/23/2018· Logistics - Reverse Logistics
By: Rosemary Coates
"Economics is strategy." This phrase made me sit up and take notice. It was from an article in The American Interest about China's One Belt One Road initiative (OBOR). Of course, we knew that OBOR was all about economics. I have written about China's building influence around the world, but to simplify China's actions in this one impactful phrase makes it so clear.
5/18/2018· Business Management
My Life as a Microsoft Dynamics Expert Witness
By: Eric Kimberling
I have been involved with Microsoft Dynamics implementations for nearly 20 years now. I have also spent the last decade providing Microsoft Dynamics expert witness testimony in implementation failures and lawsuits.
5/17/2018· Transportation
Safety Compromises, Part 5 - Failing to Kneel the Bus or Coach
By: Ned Einstein
For many passengers, the 14-inch drop from the bottom step of a high-floor transit bus or motorcoach is challenging. In transit service, drivers do not assist or even spot boarding or alighting passengers. While motorcoach drivers typically assist or spot boarding or alighting passengers at the front door, the drivers of motorcoaches deployed in commuter/express service (provided by transit agencies or companies under contract to them) do not. Nor do scheduled service drivers do so consistently, especially at intermediate stops.
5/16/2018· Expert Witnessing
Lawyers, Expert Witnesses and Ethics-Beyond Mere Testimony
By: Greg Gerganoff
Lawyers and courts turn to expert witnesses to provide triers of fact with explanations of aspects of a case that are not commonly known. It is the subject matter expert's education, experience, and skill in a particular area that will help the triers of fact to reach a well-informed conclusion/decision. Examples of expert witnesses include medical doctors, accountants, engineers, DNA scientists, and more. Lawyers (and the courts) will employ an expert witness to shed more light upon factual issues for the purpose of discerning the truth. In short, expert witnesses educate, clarify, and explain a subject that is not common knowledge for most people.
Chief Medical Physicist & RSO
