There?s a common belief that the pending concussion litigation against the NFL ultimately will result only in the lawyers making money.
The so-called expert witnesses likely will, too.
Often overlooked in complex litigation involving esoteric medical knowledge and jargon is the fact that the men and women who have the education and experience to share that knowledge and jargon with a judge and a jury get paid a lot of money.
That reality routinely results in a blurring of ethical lines.? According to Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada of ESPN.com, Dr. Robert Cantu previously served as a senior adviser to the NFL?s Head, Neck and Spine committee ? but he also has consulted with the lawyers who are suing the NFL on behalf of thousands of former players.
?It was an informational session, just like I get paid to give a talk someplace else,? Cantu said of a February 2012 presentation to the lawyers representing the players.? He also justified working for the players suing the league by explaining that the NFL could hire him to serve as an expert witness, which would block from him talking to those suing the league.
?If [the NFL] wanted to put me on their payroll, to defend their case, then I?m not gonna say boo about those issues [to the plaintiffs],? said Cantu, who gets $800 per hour for legal services, $5,000 for depositions, and $8,000 per day for trial testimony.
Cantu?s attitude underscores one of the biggest problems with the litigation industry.? Many experts aren?t necessarily motivated by the pursuit of justice but by the supplementation of their total income with the exorbitant fees they charge.? And since there?s plenty of discretion to be exercised when telling the truth, their testimony often can be molded to help whichever side of a case hires them first.
Here?s a concrete example, for those of you who are still awake.
Eleven years ago, I represented a former employee of a major U.S. low-cost big-box retailer who had been forced to take an alcohol test under circumstances that, as the jury concluded, didn?t justify an invasion of the employee?s privacy rights via the drawing of a blood sample.? The case included testimony from an expert witness who had been hired by the employer to justify the conclusion, based on the blood-alcohol concentration measured by the test, that the employee had indeed been intoxicated at work.
On cross-examination, I confronted the expert witness with a passage from a written report on the issue of blood-alcohol testing.? In the report, the author expressed concern about the reliability of efforts to use blood-alcohol measurements to determine a person?s BAC at an earlier point in time.
I read the sentence to the expert witness, and I asked the expert witness if he agreed with the statement.
He said, ?No.?
So I read it to him again, slowly.? I asked him if he agreed with that statement.
Again, he said, ?No.?
So I handed him the report, showed him the first page of it, and asked him to tell the judge and the jury who had written the report.
The expert witness, after taking a gulp, said his own name.
And that?s pretty much all I ever needed to know about the world of expert witnesses.
RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) -- Chevron Corp. says it has completed repairs at an area of its Richmond refinery that was damaged last year in a fire.
The Contra Costa Times reports (http://bit.ly/XXWLpG ) that production will not begin in the repaired crude unit until final regulatory approvals are given, which could be by the end of June.
The refinery was damaged by the August fire that sent a towering plume of black smoke into the air. Thousands of nearby residents complained of respiratory issues after the blaze.
The company received a nearly $1 million fine from state workplace safety regulators, who said Chevron didn't heed its own scientists' advice to replace the old, corroded pipe that failed and caused the fire.
Sean Comey, a company spokesman, says the company is improving safety and oversight.
Have you been feeling a bit like a UK-based Goldilocks? The Galaxy Note II's too small, the Note 10.1 a trifle too big, but the Note 8 looks just right? Well, today's your lucky day, as the mid-sized tablet has officially launched in the Queen's dominion. The WiFi-only, 16GB model will set you back £339 (approximately $516), and at the moment, you'll only find it at the Samsung Experience Store in Westfield Stratford City. It'll be available elsewhere shortly, and it's probably worth waiting -- from April 15th for a limited time, buyers will get a few extras: a £20 voucher for the Samsung Learning Hub, a two-month subscription to The Times, free access to the Samsung Music Hub for a month, and a couple of games and AVG Anti-Virus Pro gratis. If tethering ain't your bag but you need data on the go, a gent from the Westfield store told us the 3G version is on its way, but couldn't give us a firm arrival date. It's our duty to warn you Westfield is a crowded nightmare at the best of times, and the arrival of a new Samsung tablet ain't gonna help that.
Nearly half of all Americans use some variety of stone products, such as stacked stone or even brick, to try to?improve the atmosphere of their residences. There?s no question that these products are effective in enabling the individual to enjoy some kind of stone wall look; unfortunately they do not offer any long lasting solution or provide the saving that faux stone offers.
Imitation faux stone sheets
Decorating With Faux Stone.
For many decades our culture was used to having a member of the household do most the house work or light construction without having to pay an outside contractor. In-house construction and repairs used to be a very normal skill a household used to have. It was passed from one generation to another. Today, for many reasons, most homeowners tend to hire a general contractor for various types of construction and even small home improvement projects.
The costs of employing a contractor today are often higher that what homeowners can afford. This is why some companies have come up with faux stone in order to provide a way of bypassing the need to hire external help. With panels of faux stone a homeowner on a budget or anyone who doesn?t want to deal with costly labor can simply apply the panels on any surface on their own. They can pick the perfect product for their decoration preferences without having to wait for samples or design drawings.
Ordering And Delivery Process.
Another reason why faux stone is taking over cast stone, stone veneer and the cultured type in general is fact that anyone can order the material from the comfort of their desk and avoid paying high shipping costs deriving from the weight of traditional stone, brick and rocks.
Faux panels are approximately 9 pounds each and even with very large orders you can see a considerable saving. Some advanced web sites have a panel calculator as well as a shipping preview button. Beware of sites that do not quote you shipping costs. In the past we have found companies that billed their customers once the material was delivered.
Commercial Application
Commercial And Residential Applications.
We have customers who switched from old style stones to faux stone have told us that they have no more interest in using products like cast stone or real rocks again. The ease of installation makes this product incredibly appealing to businesses. The biggest users of faux stone panels are display manufacturers. They love these panels because they help to reduce set up time at trade shows. When using real stone it is impossible to screw the material in place and remove it when the show is over. This is only possible with high density resins faux panels.
So, the things to keep in mind when trying to make stone installation easy and affordable are these points. Come back often and take a look at our catalog to choose the style and color that goes with your design.
We've all generally come to accept the fact that, in using iMessage, our correspondence runs the very real risk of being eternally damned to the iCloud ether. But at least now, we know we're not suffering alone; a document obtained by CNET has revealed that the DEA has also been whining about their inability to access iMessages—but their problem is encryption. More »
Late into Night, the collaborative LP from alt-country chanteuse Tift Merritt and classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein, the piano line of the traditional "I Will Give My Love an Apple" hangs ominously in the air, each note decaying into the next. Merritt enters solemnly, her voice handling the words like an Appalachian murder ballad. Though the 14 tracks of Night consume nearly an hour, these 106 seconds are its most affecting and revelatory, largely because they illustrate an artistic conversation between these two musicians. Even when she's writing sad songs, Merritt has a tendency to sing like she's chipper; here, however, her foreboding tone is magnetic, a ghost beckoning with the sweetest song. Dinnerstein's ability to stretch both time and tune here suggest that she is playing off the charts, relying more on personal feeling than proper form.
What's more, Dinnerstein allows that trickle of notes to bleed into the next track, the worried but hopeful Merritt original "Colors." Merritt's voice and guitar are characteristically buoyant, but Dinnerstein's playing underlines the self-doubt embedded in these verses. Eventually, they both perk up, gliding through the song's back half with a newly awakened mutual assurance.
Dinnerstein and Merritt started working together after the singer interviewed the instrumentalist for a magazine years ago; they debuted their duo project in 2011 at Duke University before recording this material last summer during an extended session at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. The best songs find them connecting as equals, as on the graceful opener "Only in Songs" and their remarkably fluid take on "Dido's Lament."
Unfortunately, that's not a consistent quality. Though Night collects several marvelous moments, they do sometimes get subsumed by the project's weight of self-importance. Merritt and Dinnerstein both take solo turns, for instance, with Merritt handling "Wayfaring Stranger" and one of her own and Dinnerstein taking on Leonard Cohen variations and a Bach prelude. Charitably, those breaks in the collaboration confirm the talents of both parties; alternately, they simply take too much space on an album that could benefit from a modicum of economy.
Still, at its best, Night doubles with gorgeous and surprising material, a testament to Merritt's growth since she debuted in the smallest Triangle rock clubs as a gal with a guitar.
Label: Sony Classical
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