Environment (General) Expert Witnesses: 22

Dr. Dennis Stainken has over 30 years of Industrial and Government experience managing Pollution Control and Hazardous Waste Projects. His experience includes assignments in engineering, analytical and toxicology sciences for regulatory compliance, product registration, risk assessment, technology development.

Dr. Stainken is a national expert in Environmental Toxicology & Ecological Research on the transport, fate and effect of pollutants, and in quality assurance in government and industry.

Areas of Expertise:

Health Effects Toxicology Chemical Exposure Health Issues/Physiology/Chemistry Water & Waste Water Ecological Services Contamination & Remediation Analytical Chemistry

Natural Resource Damage Assessments Property Assessments Hazardous Waste Water Quality Risk Assessment Wetlands Industrial Services Gasoline & Oil Issues

Research & Planning Consultants, LP (RPC) has been assisting clients with expert services for over 45 years, including consulting and expert witness testimony for personal injury, healthcare litigation, commercial litigation and Certificate of Need matters. RPC also offers a wide selection of health data. They have served clients across the U.S, from Alaska to Florida and from New England to California. 

A Complete Team of Damages Experts for Personal Injury Litigation

Research & Planning Consultants, LP provides the following services: 

• PERSONAL INJURY - RPC provides comprehensive damages analysis in personal injury litigation. Their expert team has life care planners, vocational evaluators, board-certified physicians, economists and neuropsychologists. 

Areas of Expertise include: Life Care Plans, Loss of Earning Capacity or Support, Present Value of Damages, Medical Bill Analysis, Chargemaster Analysis, Neuropsychological Testing & Traumatic Brain Injury, Vocational Evaluations, IMEs, Section 18.001, Prestanding ED Chargemaster Analysis

• COMMERCIAL LITIGATION- RPC has provided expert analysis on commercial litigation concerning many industries: chemicals, refining, forestry, waste management, pipelines, water resources, oil and gas EDP, fisheries, agriculture, electrical generating plants, transmission lines, telecommunications, and real estate development. Our special expertise in the healthcare industry has proven valuable to business litigators unfamiliar with this complex industry.

Areas of Expertise: Breach of Contract / Commercial Economic Damages, Construction Disputes, Litigation over Non-Competitive Agreements, Environmental Torts and Toxic Torts, Commercial Disparagement, Wrongful Termination

• HEALTHCARE LITIGATION - RPC offers economic, statistical, data and clinical analysis in a wide range of healthcare litigation. They have experience with payment disputes, qui tam litigation, physician-hospital disputes, practice valuations and construction litigation. 

Areas of Expertise: Qui Tam Healthcare Litigation, Medical Staff Disputes, Professional Liability, Payment Disputes, Health Facility Construction Disputes, Freestanding ED Chargemester Analysis

• CERTIFICATE OF NEED - RPC provides Certificate of Need (CON) planning services nationwide. We have over 35 years of experience developing regulatory strategy, preparing applications and testifying in public and administrative hearings.

Areas of Expertise: Satellite Hospitals, New Hospitals, Relocation and Transfer of Beds, Observation Beds, Geriatric Psychiatric Units, Children’s Hospitals, Comprehensive Inpatient Rehabilitation Units, Neonatal Intensive Care Units, Open Heart Surgery Services, Long Term Acute Care Units, Projects that exceed CON Capital Threshold Limits, Projects for Specifically Listed Services, Programs Requiring CON, Hospices, Senior Living Facilities

Ronald T. Luke, JD, PhD, is a principal consultant and President of RPC, LP. Ron joined RPC in 1976 and became its president and principal owner in 1979. He has consulted on projects for health care providers, managed care plans and public agencies in more than 25 states. He also serves as an expert witness in trials, administrative proceedings and legislative hearings.

Active in the Health Policy Arena, Dr. Luke has been accepted as an expert in Economics, Socioeconomic Impact Analysis, and Policy Analysis by state and federal courts, and state administrative agencies. The types of cases in which he has provided expert testimony include personal injury, contractual disputes, health care payment disputes, construction defects, utility construction permitting, and certificate of need. He has testified on health care matters including market structure, billing fraud and abuse, reasonableness of charges, medical staff credentialing, workers’ compensation fee guidelines, utilization review, physician contracts, and managed care contracts.

Kacy L. Turner, MS, CRC, CVE, CLCP, is a Certified Life Care Planner and Vocational Consultant with RPC. She has over 20 years of experience in Rehabilitation. Ms. Turner has experience writing life care plans for both plaintiff and defense clients. She has experience as a rehabilitation consultant in three states and has been qualified as a testifying expert in state and federal court.  

Ms. Turner has worked on cases in several states as well as the country of Trinidad. To determine the pre-injury and post-injury employability in personal injury cases, she provides vocational testing, transferable skills analysis, job requirements analysis, rehabilitation plans, and definition of reasonable accommodations under the American with Disabilities Act. She is a member of the International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals, the Texas Association of Rehabilitation Professionals and Providers of Services, and Vocational Evaluation and Career Assessment Professionals.

Brian Piper, PhD,  is an Economist with RPC specializing in Quantitative Analysis and Modelling. He works on a variety of cases including personal injury and certificate of need. He is experienced in data extraction, management, simulation, and analysis using STATA, SQL, ARC GIS and a variety of other programs. Dr. Piper has taught graduate classes in statistics and econometrics in both MBA and Ph.D. programs.

Dr. Piper is an experienced expert, providing testimony, reports, and affidavits on the issues of economic damages in personal injury litigation, healthcare litigation, False Claims Act litigation, and other commercial litigation. He has testified on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants. 

Dr. Piper specializes in the economics of healthcare. He has been retained by healthcare providers and insurers in payment disputes. He has analyzed the reasonableness of charges and expected payment for past and future medical services for providers, insurers, plaintiffs, and defendants. Besides work in litigation, Dr. Piper has provided analysis of Certificate of Need applications and the economic impacts of proposed legislation.

Ted W. Simon, PhD, DABT, is an award winning Environmental Toxicologist and Scientist. His expertise is in toxicology, risk assessment, mathematical modeling, statistics, neuroscience, and environmental / ecological health issues.

Dr. Simon has over 10 years of experience as a toxicologist employed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He served as EPA’s senior toxicologist in the waste management division working on risk and soil cleanup.

Teaching Experience - Since 2001, Dr. Simon has served as an Instructor / Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health, at the University of Georgia.

Public Speaker - Well published, including the author of a textbook on toxicology and environmental risk assessment, Dr. Simon has extensive national and international public speaking experience. Since 1996, he has been delivering seminars and lectures to universities and national institutes on many subjects within his area of expertise. In 2016, he delivered a lectures on “Bayesian Methods for Application of Uncertainty Factors,” to the Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, and “Quantitative Prediction of Phenotypic Change from High Throughput Assay Results,” to the EPA's Workshop on In Vitro to In Vivo Extrapolation, Research Triangle Park, NC.

Litigation Support - Dr. Simon has over 15 years of experience offering expert witness services to counsel representing both plaintiff and defendant. He has been retained over 20 times since 2000 for cases involving environmental risk, drug and alcohol cases, DUI, accidental poisoning, and intellectual property. Dr. Simon has particular expertise in dioxin-like chemicals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). His services include consulting, reports, deposition, and trial testimony when necessary.

Areas of Expertise:

Dioxins PCBs Drugs Alcohol Poisoning DUI / DWI Water Contamination Soil Contamination Environmental Risk Assessment

Environmental Toxicology Carcinogenicity Food Contamination Pesticides Fracking Lead Marijuana Polychlorinated Biphenyls Intellectual Property

John Booth, the Principal Consultant and Practice Director of Sylvanus Arboricultural Consultants Ltd., is a Chartered Aboricuturalist and Chartered Environmentalist and one of the UK’s most widely qualified Arboricultural Consultants. He has over 25 years experience in both the private and public sectors and has written numerous articles and papers for respected publications including the International Journal of Urban Forestry for which he is also a referee.

Mr. Booth and Sylvanus Ltd. are regularly instructed by both developers and Local Planning Authorities (LPA’s) who are keen to ensure a satisfactory outcome from the planning process, (i.e. an appropriate balance between tree retention and realizing a site's development potential). All such work is carried out in accordance with the guiding principles of British Standard 5837 ‘Trees in Relation to Construction – Recommendations.’ 

Mr. Booth is a Bond Solon/Cardiff University trained Expert Witness and a member of the Expert Witness Institute. He has many years of experience in both courtroom and planning enquiries. Services Include:

• Tree Inspection & Survey - Single Tree, Large Population, Mortgage Lending, Safety and Subsidence Issues
• Tree Preservation Orders (TPO's) and Conservation Areas - Detailed Specifications for Tree Work Applications for Trees with Statutory Protection
• Trees and Development - Tree Surveys for Submission with Planning Applications, Tree Constraints Plans (TCP’s), Tree Protection Plans (TPP’s), Arboricultural Impact Assessments (AIA), Arboricultural Method Statements (AMS)

I bring diverse, combined education, licensing, and credentialing in geology, biology, and hazardous materials management. Indoor air quality as related to asbestos, mold, lead, building hazards, vapor intrusion, OSHA worker and occupant complaints.

I manage a firm of environmental and industrial hygiene professionals while serving as an expert in my diverse field; I have over 70 retained cases complete. I can cost effectively support engagements that may require extensive data gathering across an expanded time frame. I apply my capabilities and credentials across commercial, industrial, and oil & gas settings, with a technical focus on highly regulated industry and real estate.

I have been steadily retained for expert witness services since 1995.

I specialize in structural fire forensic investigation and testing, routinely leverage post-flood emergency response expertise in buildings, specific to microbial disinfection, mold mitigation, and source mold under forensic methods of investigation that may exist under alleged building construction defects. I possess expertise in building systems and mitigating hazards from structures in advance of demolition for asbestos, lead, and other regulated materials.  I prepare, implement (and/or critically review) asbestos specifications, mold remediation protocols, OSHA-driven lead specifications, and remediation soil management plans.

I have evaluated diverse workplaces following loss reports due to alleged safety and public health concerns and offered mitigation strategies for worker safety under OSHA complaints, especially regarding respiratory protection. I have served as an expert for multiple worker injury and wrongful death allegations within the context of environmental exposure.  

View Ms. Franks' Consulting Profile.

Dr. Michael L. Dourson has a PhD in Toxicology from the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, and is a board-certified toxicologist (i.e., DABT) with over 40 years of experience in Environmental Risk Assessment. 

Dr. Dourson serves as President/Director of the 501c3 nonprofit organization Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA). Prior to this, he was Senior Advisor in the Office of the Administrator at the US EPA. Before this, he was a Professor in the Risk Science Center at the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine and also worked at TERA and US EPA. 

Litigation Support - Dr. Dourson's specialized knowledge of the issues and pitfalls involved in the research and development of human health risk assessments along with his cutting-edge toxicology expertise allows him to provide state-of-the-art science assessments for attorneys representing plaintiff and defense. 

Services:

• Review toxicity data to assist in determining whether an exposure was the proximate cause of health effects;
• Perform literature searches and providing written critical analysis of literature;
• Provide services related to expert witness opinions and testimony;
• Review and analyzing environmental monitoring data;
• Assist with the development of exposure and medical monitoring programs; and
• Plan and manage peer review and peer consultation programs.

Areas of Expertise:

RfD Assessments RfD Risk Technology Toxicology Reviews Occupational Toxicology Screening Assessments Product Assessments Site Assessments PFAs

Safe Dose Environmental Regulations Research and Methods Development Quantitative Risk Assessment Mode of Action Analysis Emerging Risk Issues Green Chemistry Pharmaceutical Safety

Dr. Dourson has been awarded the Arnold J. Lehman award from the Society of Toxicology, the International Achievement Award by the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, and 4 bronze medals from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (i.e., FATS) and as a Fellow for the Society for Risk Analysis (i.e., FSRA).

He is the co-author of 3 Patty’s Toxicology chapters on PFAS chemistries and the co-author of 6 research papers on PFOA, two of which have won paper of the year awards from the Society of Toxicology’s Regulatory and Safety Evaluation Specialty Section.

Water, Sanitation, Climate Change

20-years as Expert Witness: Tariff negotiations, technical litigations re. water, sanitation & wastewater, cleanup programs, contamination

Member of US National Academy of Engineering

Fellow & past Vice-President - International Water Association

Fellow Water-Energy Nexus Center, U. of California, Irvine.

Civil Eng. U. of Buenos Aires, M.Eng. McMaster University & Master in Management of Technology from MIT

Co-author 10 books & 100 papers

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