Forensic biomechanics is the application of biomechanical engineering science to litigation where biomechanical experts determine whether an accident was the cause of an alleged injury. [1] [2] (See "New York State Bar Association Bar Journal November/December 2010 - The Rise of Biomechanical Experts at Trial by Robert Glick, Esq. and Sean O'Loughlin, Esq. [2] ) Application of biomechanics to the analysis of an accident involves an accident reconstruction coupled with an analysis of the motions and forces affecting the people involved in the accident. [3] [2] ( See "New York State Bar Association Bar Journal November/December 2010 - The Rise of Biomechanical Experts at Trial by Robert Glick, Esq. and Sean O'Loughlin, Esq. [2] ) A biomechanical expert’s testimony on the motions and forces involved in an accident may be both relevant and probative on the issue of injury causation. [3] [2] (See "New York State Bar Association Bar Journal November/December 2010 - The Rise of Biomechanical Experts at Trial by Robert Glick, Esq. and Sean O'Loughlin, Esq. [2] )
During the years 2005 to 2019, the Courts of New York City witnessed the innovation and widespread use of biomechanical experts. [4] Soon after the innovation of biomechanical experts in the Courts of New York City, prominent trial attorneys and the New York State Bar Association began offering scholarly articles and educational seminars on the use of biomechanical experts. [4] Notable articles on Biomechanical Experts include: "New York State Bar Association Bar Journal November/December 2010 - The Rise of Biomechanical Experts at Trial by Robert Glick, Esq. and Sean O'Loughlin, Esq. [2] ", "The Role of Biomechanics Engineering: an Explanation in Accident Reconstruction by Richard Sands, Esq. [5] ", "New York Law Journal - Using Biomechanical Science in Labor Law and Premises Cases by Richard Sands, Esq. [6] ", "New York Law Journal - Winning the Biomechanical 'Frye' Hearing by Steven Balson-Cohen, Esq," [7] PropertyCasualty360 - Insurers Tap Biomechanics To Fix Blame For Injuries Claimed In Crashes." [1]
On December 28, 2018, the New York Law Journal published an article by prominent trial attorney Steven Balson-Cohen titled "Requiem for the Biomechanical ‘Frye’ Hearing?" revealing that the current state of the law in New York was that all four appellate divisions had accepted the legitimacy of biomechanical science in the courtroom. [8]
Prominent trial attorneys in biomechanics include but are not limited to: Stephen B. Toner, Francis J. Scahill, Richard M. Sands, Claire F. Rush, Steven Balson-Cohen, John J. Komar, Howard Greenwald, Maurice J. Recchia, Cecil E. Floyd, Philip J. Rizzuto, Milene Mansouri, Joseph Jednak, Paul Koors, Anthony E. Graziani, Kristen N. Reed, John Corring.
An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as an expert. The judge may consider the witness's specialized opinion about evidence or about facts before the court within the expert's area of expertise, to be referred to as an "expert opinion". Expert witnesses may also deliver "expert evidence" within the area of their expertise. Their testimony may be rebutted by testimony from other experts or by other evidence or facts.
Forensic engineering has been defined as "the investigation of failures—ranging from serviceability to catastrophic—which may lead to legal activity, including both civil and criminal". It includes the investigation of materials, products, structures or components that fail or do not operate or function as intended, causing personal injury, damage to property or economic loss. The consequences of failure may give rise to action under either criminal or civil law including but not limited to health and safety legislation, the laws of contract and/or product liability and the laws of tort. The field also deals with retracing processes and procedures leading to accidents in operation of vehicles or machinery. Generally, the purpose of a forensic engineering investigation is to locate cause or causes of failure with a view to improve performance or life of a component, or to assist a court in determining the facts of an accident. It can also involve investigation of intellectual property claims, especially patents. In the US, forensic engineers require a professional engineering license from each state.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York is the intermediate appellate court in New York State. The state is geographically divided into four judicial departments of the Appellate Division. The full title of each is, for example, the "Fourth Department" is "Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department").
Forensic psychology is the practice of psychology applied to the law. Forensic psychology is the application of scientific knowledge and methods to help answer legal questions arising in criminal, civil, contractual, or other judicial proceedings. Forensic psychology includes research on various psychology-law topics, such as jury selection, reducing systemic racism in criminal law, eyewitness testimony, evaluating competency to stand trial, or assessing military veterans for service-connected disability compensation. The American Psychological Association's Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychologists reference several psychology subdisciplines, such as social, clinical, experimental, counseling, and neuropsychology.
In United States federal law, the Daubert standard is a rule of evidence regarding the admissibility of expert witness testimony. A party may raise a Daubert motion, a special motion in limine raised before or during trial, to exclude the presentation of unqualified evidence to the jury. The Daubert trilogy are the three United States Supreme Court cases that articulated the Daubert standard:
The American Association for Justice (AAJ), formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) is a nonprofit advocacy and lobbying organization for plaintiff's lawyers in the United States. Focused on opposing tort reform, the organization is one of the Democratic Party's most influential political allies, according to The Washington Post.
Thomas Selby Ellis III is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, appointed by Ronald Reagan.
A personal injury lawyer is a lawyer who provides legal services to those who claim to have been injured, physically or psychologically, as a result of the negligence of another person, company, government agency or any entity. Personal injury lawyers primarily practice in the area of law known as tort law. Examples of common personal injury claims include injuries from slip and fall accidents, traffic collisions, defective products, workplace injuries and professional malpractice.
Traffic collision reconstruction is the process of investigating, analyzing, and drawing conclusions about the causes and events during a vehicle collision. Reconstructionists conduct collision analysis and reconstruction to identify the cause of a collision and contributing factors including the role of the driver(s), vehicle(s), roadway and general environment. Physics and engineering principles are the basis for these analyses and may involved the use of software for calculations and simulations. Collision reconstruction is sometimes used as the basis of expert witness testimony at trials. Collision reconstructions are performed in cases involving fatalities or personal injury. Results from collision reconstructions are also sometimes used for making roads and highways safer, as well as improving safety aspects of motor vehicle designs. Reconstructions are typically conducted by forensic engineers, specialized units in law enforcement agencies, or private consultants.
Tort reform consists of changes in the civil justice system in common law countries that aim to reduce the ability of plaintiffs to bring tort litigation or to reduce damages they can receive. Such changes are generally justified under the grounds that litigation is an inefficient means to compensate plaintiffs; that tort law permits frivolous or otherwise undesirable litigation to crowd the court system; or that the fear of litigation can serve to curtail innovation, raise the cost of consumer goods or insurance premiums for suppliers of services, and increase legal costs for businesses. Tort reform has primarily been prominent in common law jurisdictions, where criticism of judge-made rules regarding tort actions manifests in calls for statutory reform by the legislature.
The impeachment of Andrew Johnson was initiated on February 24, 1868, when the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to impeach Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, for "high crimes and misdemeanors". The alleged high crimes and misdemeanors were afterwards specified in eleven articles of impeachment adopted by the House on March 2 and 3, 1868. The primary charge against Johnson was that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Specifically, that he had acted to remove from office Edwin Stanton and to replace him with Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas as secretary of war ad interim. The Tenure of Office had been passed by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto with the primary intent of protecting Stanton from being fired without the Senate's consent. Stanton often sided with the Radical Republican faction and did not have a good relationship with Johnson.
Sean W. Kennedy was a gay American man who was severely punched by a younger man, Stephen Andrew Moller as Kennedy was leaving a bar in Greenville, South Carolina. The punch was so hard that it shattered his facial bones and separated his brain from his brain stem. Kennedy died 17 hours later of his fatal injuries. This attack and Kennedy's death drew attention to South Carolina's lack of a hate crime law and is believed to have contributed to passage of the federal Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2009, for which his mother lobbied. Additionally, Moller served so little time "because of the lack of an applicable Violent Crime Law in South Carolina" at the time, according to the Judge, although this explanation was seen by the LGBT community as merely thinly veiled homophobia.
An employment consultant is an expert witness who advises courts and tribunals on employment related issues such as earnings, labour market analysis, residual earning capacity, and retraining. The main area involved is that of personal injury litigation where loss of earnings is an important component of a claim. Employment consultants give evidence on pre and post accident earnings, thus establishing a loss of earnings formula. Employment consultants also deal with sex, race and disability discrimination, matrimonial matters and any case involving a loss or dispute of earnings. Increasingly, pay parity is a growth area.
Lewis A. Kaplan is a senior United States district judge serving on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was the presiding judge in a number of cases involving high-profile defendants, including E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump, Virginia Giuffre v. Prince Andrew, the criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried, and trials of Al Qaeda terrorists such as Ahmed Ghailani.
Philip Harnett Corboy was an American trial lawyer who was involved in personal injury, wrongful death and medical malpractice cases across the United States for more than half a century. He founded the Philip H. Corboy & Associates law firm which later became Corboy & Demetrio. Former Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean, David Yellen, stated: "There are very few living lawyers who have had the kind of impact Phil Corboy has. He largely transformed the practice of personal injury law. He was a teacher and mentor to a couple of generations of leading lawyers in the country." His career was featured in a cover article in Chicago Lawyer entitled "Corboy College: Chicago Trial Lawyers' Alma Mater".
Merrill Kenneth Albert was an American author and trial lawyer best known for his colorful courtroom tactics. One of Los Angeles' foremost trial advocates, Albert introduced several practices – such as the use of dummies and other tools in reconstructing incidents – familiar in current legal practice but virtually non-existent when he began his career. He was a pioneer in the development and use of biomechanical devices and modeling in major personal injury cases to explain the mechanical properties of the musculoskeletal system in relation to the physics and dynamics of collisions with cars, trains, and human beings involved in accidents. He was the lead trial attorney in "bet the company" cases for the Union Pacific Railroad, the Santa Fe Railroad, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, Swinerton Construction Co., and the Regents of the University of California. Some of his more dramatic trials are recounted in Tales of the Rails: Railroad Claims Stories by Norman Udewitz.
Sean David Murphy is an American international law scholar currently serving as the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., where he has been teaching since 1998. His primary areas of scholarly research are public international law, foreign affairs and the Constitution of the United States, international organizations, international dispute settlement, and law of the sea. Murphy served for ten years on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law and is a former president of the American Society of International Law. In 2016, the United Nations General Assembly re-elected Murphy to serve as a Member of the U.N. International Law Commission (ILC). He was named by the ILC as Special Rapporteur for Crimes Against Humanity, a topic on which he has lectured widely.
Susan Margulies is an American engineer and assistant director of the U.S. National Science Foundation, heading the Directorate for Engineering. She is also the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Injury Biomechanics and Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, where she served as chair from 2017 to 2021. She is a world leader in the biomechanics of head injury in infants.
Michele S. Mirman is a Brooklyn trial lawyer specializing in accidents, medical malpractice, and construction accidents in the New York State and Federal Courts. She has an active member of the New York State Bar for over 42 years, and is known for winning the then-highest verdict in the U.S. for a female attorney on behalf of a rape victim at $4 million in 1985.
Beth Ann Winkelstein is the Deputy Provost and the Eduardo D. Glandt President’s Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Winkelstein has established an active research program that is recognized for elucidating the mechanisms of subfailure cervical spine injuries and the cellular events surrounding the etiology of chronic pain. She is further recognized for longstanding contributions to the discipline of biomechanics and for mentoring many students that have followed into research active careers.