Fall Protection Solutions Expert Witnesses: 9

Michael P. Lawler, MS, CSP, ASP, CHST, is a Construction Safety Expert with over 30 years of experience. He offers a unique combination of formal education and "project based" technical experience working on some of the largest construction projects in the United States. 

Litigation Support - Mr. Lawler's experience includes over 50 OSHA inspections and associated negotiation and defense preparation related to OSHA citations.   His background allows him to opine on OSHA Standards and Contract Responsibility with a demeanor of care and confidence. 

Mr. Lawler is an expert at applying OSH Act of 1970 standards, CFR 1926 & 1910 regulations, policies, construction industry practices, contract responsibility, incident investigation, and accident reconstruction. Mr. Lawler analyzes how post incident details and investigations should be completed and who is responsible per the OSHA Standard and construction industry practices. He is experienced in personal injury, catastrophic injury, and fatality cases. 

Areas of Expertise:

Michael C. Wright, PE, CSP, CPE is a Professional Engineer with over 35 years of academic, practical, and specialized knowledge of Engineering, Construction, Safety, Maintenance, Demolition and Training in general industry and construction activities. Mr. Wright's expertise is a definite plus in providing clients with leading edge information and insight. A licensed and practicing engineer, he rounds out his knowledge as a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and Certified Plant Engineer to provide an insightful and accurate understanding of the issues involved in a case. 

Mr. Wright has completed over 600 hours of specialized safety training, serves on ANSI and ASTM Standards committees and provides a thorough knowledge of OSHA Regulations, Directives and Letters of Interpretation. A recognized author, presenter, and trainer, Mr. Wright communicates the issues clearly for all to understand. His expert witness experience is a balanced blend of defense, plaintiff and OSHA Solicitor cases. He is licensed in 46 states. 

Areas of Expertise:

View Mr. Wright's Curriculum Vitae

Greg Gerganoff, CSP, Esq., possesses extensive experience in safety compliance and practice involving OSHA and MSHA.  He obtained is law degree from Western Michigan University, Cooley Law School and practiced general civil law for approximately 12 years in Colorado prior to entering the safety profession. Mr. Gerganoff earned a Certified Safety Professional certification and has 18 years of field safety experience in mining, oil and gas, construction, manufacturing, power plant outages, and light rail construction.

His professional safety experience includes OSHA / MSHA Safety field work and compliance with experience in the heavy construction, manufacturing, light rail construction, power plant outages, public schools, oil and gas, mining, pipeline, and trenching and excavation industries.

• Authorized Outreach Trainer for OSHA General Industry.
• PEC Safeland Basic and Core instructor (Oil and gas).
• MSHA Approved Instructor (Blue Card) for Surface, Metal/nonmetal.
• Member of the American Society of Safety Professionals.

Litigation Support: Mr. Gerganoff assists with discovery questions regarding safety matters. Safety opinions based upon statutory, administrative, judicial rulings and related industry association safety policies ancillary to OSHA and MSHA.  Mr. Gerganoff is retained by attorneys for both Plaintiff and Defendant. Some of the subject matter litigation he has handled include:

View Greg Gerganoff's Consulting Profile.

R. Kevin Smith PE, BSME, MMAE, has been a specialist in Engineering Forensic Safety and Design for 35 years. He has consulted on over a 1,000 matters nationwide. Mr. Smith is a registered professional engineer and holds a BSME and MMAE from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He is board certified forensic engineer through the National Academy of Forensic Engineers. He specializes in Material Handling Equipment Safety, including lift trucks, dock safety, truck loading, conveyors, and aerial work platform safety. Mr. has been actively involved as a member of the committee that writes the Safety Standard for Low Lift and High Lift Trucks (ASME/ANSI B56.1) for over 30 years. He also serves on the B56.6 committee (rough terrain lift trucks) and the ANSI A92.5 and A92.6 subcommittees (self-propelled elevating work platforms). Litigation Support - Mr. Smith formerly worked for Triodyne, Inc. for over 15 years as a forensic engineer/principal engineer. As President of R. K. Smith Engineering Inc., for over 25 years, he currently has a laboratory for examination and testing, and owns or has access to varied testing equipment and tools. Kevin Smith has testified at depositions and trials on several hundred matters. He has performed hundreds of investigations into product failures involving injury and property damage, and has reconstructed numerous accidents. His expertise is available to counsel representing both Plaintiff and Defendant. Mr. Smith also was previously on the Adjunct Math faculty at Prairie State College for 13 years. Areas of Expertise:

View R. Kevin Smith's Consulting Profile.

Dr. J. P. Purswell, PhD, PE, CPE has extensive experience in Human Factors, Ergonomics, and Safety Engineering. He holds a doctorate in Industrial & Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech. He has taught Safety Engineering and Ergonomics in the Industrial Engineering Department at CSU-Pueblo since 1999. 

A member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the American Industrial Hygiene Association, Dr. Purswell also served as the Chair of the Industrial Engineers PE exam from 2005 to 2009. He continues to serve on the committee which is responsible for the preparation of the national professional engineering examination in industrial engineering. 

Dr. Purswell is the author of more than 20 publications and presentations on Product Safety, Occupational Safety, Printed Warnings, and Auditory Warnings. Examples of products addressed include silica, asbestos, cleaning chemicals, gasoline containers, and recreational equipment. Dr. Purswell maintains NIST-calibrated equipment for the measurement of light, sound, force, and whole-body and hand-arm vibration in addition to standard photo and video equipment. 

Litigation Support - An Expert Witness in the legal industry since 1997, Dr. Purswell has been qualified as an expert in state and federal courts across the nation in safety engineering, including safety analysis techniques such as Fault Tree Analysis and FMEA as well as product warnings / instructions and OSHA compliance issues. His services include site inspections, document review, drafting Rule 26-compliant reports, deposition, and trial testimony. He has been retained by attorneys for both Plaintiff (40%) and Defense (60%) more than 100 times, has been deposed approximately 50 times, and has testified at trial over 20 times. 

Areas of Expertise:

View Dr. Purswell's Consulting Profile.

John L. Ryan, BSME, P.E. is a Mechanical Engineer who provides general Mechanical and Structural Engineering expertise. Mechanical and Safety Engineering (MASE) provides full service analysis and accident reconstruction of products involved in accidents. 

Mr. Ryan's services have been requested for attorneys and insurance companies needing forensic engineering expert witness testimony to determine whether machinery and products involved in injury cases were adequately designed or whether they have a Design, Manufacturing, or Material Defect. All products are lab-tested on site to determine adherence to industry standards and engineering design protocol. Alternate preventative designs are developed when none exist commercially. 

Mr. Ryan is available for both Plaintiff and Defense, depending on the individual case. His services include producing high quality reports and visual aids in the courtroom such as scale models to help explain accident scenarios and alternate designs to judges and juries. 

Areas of Expertise:

• Accident Investigation and Reconstruction
• Machine Guarding Accident Investigation
• Climbing Gym Accidents
• Belay Device Failure
• Rock Climbing Accidents
• Fall Protection Failures
• Ladder Failure Investigation
• Design Defect Analysis
• Structural Analysis of Buildings
• Product Liability Investigations
• General Engineering Injuries and Issues
• Industrial safety
• Engineering Continuing Education
• Product Certification

View John Ryan's Consulting Profile.

Harriet Jacobster, AuD, is an ASHA Certified Doctor of Audiology with almost 40 years of experience, as well as a Certified Health Coach, Certified Master Trainer and Functional Aging Specialist. She is knowledgeable in diagnostics and cognitive disorders focusing on Tinnitus, Hearing Loss, Balance, and Military Noise Exposure.

Litigation Support - Dr. Jacobster serves as an Expert WItness for cases involving Hearing Damage and Loss. Her services are available to attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant and include medical, occupational, and audiology test review, thorough reporting, DMEs, depositions, and trial testimony as needed. Dr. Jacobster is also an expert witness and disability consultant for various veterans and legal organizations Cases have included 3M Earplugs as well as private cases involving motor vehicle accidents.

Areas of Expertise:

Background Experience - Dr. Jacobster has decades of experience providing comprehensive hearing tests, tinnitus assessment and treatment, hearing aid services, hearing protection services, and Military Noise Exposure.

To show her dedication to promoting professional standards, Dr. Jacobster served on the  Membership and Professional Compliance Committees of the American Academy of Audiology. She's also served on the faculties of several colleges both in the United States and abroad, and on staff of several hospitals. 

An accomplished musician, Dr. Jacobster has served on various Boards of DIrectors including the Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss. She was a nominee to the Board of Governors of the American Board of Audiology and was co-chair of the Fundraising Committee for the Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Loss.  She works closely with the American Tinnitus Association as a counselor to raise awareness and bring hope to people with tinnitus and their families and was chosen as the Guest Healthcare Professional for the Summer, 2015 edition of Tinnitus Today, the publication of the ATA.

" WHO IS AN EXPERT?
ONE WHO HAS ACQUIRED COMPREHENSIVE SPECIFIC EDUCATION,
ADVANCED AND CONTINUING TRAINING, AND EXTENSIVE SPECIFIC
EXPERIENCE TO GAIN THE KNOWLEDGE AND AUTHORITATIVE ABILITIES
REPRESENTING THE MASTERY OF THE SPECIFIC FIELD AND OF THE SUBJECT."

Nation Wide and International Expertise.

Timothy G. Galarnyk: Educated in Construction and Safety.  Continued Training in Construction and Safety. More than 45 Years of HANDS-ON Field Experience. Actively involved in construction since 1976. Equipment operator, member of International Union of Operating Engineers since 2004, Certified by ATSSA in Construction Work Zone Traffic Control - MUTCD since 1988. More than 1,000 Incidents Independently Investigated. 

Traffic Crashes in Construction Work Zones - Related to MUTCD Compliance. CERTIFIED by ATSSA in Work Zone Traffic Control since 1988. 

Construction Risk Management, Inc., is a corporation with experts in construction safety, structure collapses, construction means and methods, and construction work zone traffic control.  Investigation focuses on:

Bridges, Buildings, Residential, Industrial, Commercial, High-Rises, Marine, Highways, Underground, Water, General and Subcontractor Issues

Litigation Support - We conduct Forensic Investigations of Construction Accidents / Injuries / Deaths to establish the Cause. What happened? How did it happen? Where and When did it happen? Why did it happen? Who is Responsible? Depositions and Trial Experienced. State and Federal Courts. Defense and Plaintiff - Makes no difference as the case facts and evidence rules. 

Areas of Expertise (include but not limited to):

Thomas J. Young, PE, has over 39 years of experience in national and international Transportation Construction, the Civil Engineering specialty regarding highways, bridges, rail, airports, harbors, and associated infrastructure.

Mr. Young is a skilled integrator of the parameters of program and project life cycles, leadership, management, business operations, engineering and construction. He has extensive knowledge of regulatory compliance, environmental processes, industry standards, best practices, and field operations in urban and remote areas.

Mr. Young has broad construction management and design background for many of the knowledge and skill areas required in mining operations, bridges, highways, land development, major soil/structure type facilities, land survey, and construction surveying, including work in Arctic facilities and in desert regions.

Selected Background Experience:

• Completed 34 bridge structure designs, seismic retrofits, and special studies, including large cut and cover tunnels and numerous other complex structures for the $700 million design/build Eastern Transportation Corridor toll roads in Orange County, California
• Bridge construction oversight on $1 billion Cypress Corridor reconstruction in Oakland, California. 
• $10 million Sunrise/Highway 50, and $40-$50 million Douglas/Interstate 80 Interchange and Corridor designs in Sacramento, California.
• Bridge and highway project development duties in Caltrans Districts 1-5, 7, 10-12.

Thomas J. Young: PowerTeam Interview

Litigation Support - Mr. Young can act as an expert witness in all cases related to Forensic Transportation Construction Engineering. A persuasive communicator skilled at negotiating successful outcomes to complex situations, his expertise at analysis, problem solving, and bringing parties together in the public and private sectors is an asset in his performance in forensic engineering and expert witness testimony.

Areas of Expertise:

View Civ-Tek International's Business Consulting Profile.