Category: Premises Liability, Real Estate, Safety, Security Aging Malls Breed Litigation TASA ID: 396 Prior to October of 2012, my previous shopping center personal injury case was in 2004. Since last October, I have been asked to serve as an expert witness in four litigation matters involving serious personal injury or wrongful death that happened in or around regional malls. In my analysis of this unique cluster of cases, it occurred to me that they all shared a common, but poorly understood, element that I thought worth sharing with readers of The TASA Knowledge Center. Read more
Category: Chemicals / Toxic Substances, Environment, Product Liability Air Quality and Product Liability Case Studies: A Chemical Expert’s Analysis TASA ID: 203 End users of a product are occasionally unhappy with the product's performance or time of durability. In the areas of paints, coatings, and adhesives, a paint or coating may fade, blister, or crack shortly after its application or well before its expiration date. An adhesive may also delaminate in random fashion. Additionally, personal injury may result. Read more
Category: Construction, Property Damage Stone and Tile Floor Damaged from Floods? Replace or Repair? TASA ID: 1123 Attorneys and insurance adjusters have difficulty in cases where flooding occurs due to the fact that it is difficult to determine if a floor needs to be replaced or if it can be repaired. To determine the extent of damage and to ultimately settle on a value for the claim, a thorough understanding of what can cause these damages is necessary. Read more
Category: Construction, Engineering, Personal Injury, Property Damage, Safety Electrical Equipment Failures Cause and Liability TASA ID: 419 Many insurance claims and lawsuits are the result of electrical system failures. The basis for such actions is frequently personal injury and/or property damage that can be caused by fire or other degradation of related systems, vehicles or structures. It will be shown that electrical systems can have high inherent reliability to minimize end-product field service costs, safety hazards and, of course, liability. Failures of electrical systems are most frequently due to external factors such as poor design, improper use, faulty manufacturing, substandard service, mishandling and other causes. System malfunctions are rarely caused by random component failures and a properly executed failure analysis will almost always identify an entity liable for resultant damages. Read more
Category: Psychology/Psychiatry Sexual Abuse Evaluations in Young Children: Why It Takes an Expert to Determine If Children Are Telling the Truth or Fabricating Allegations of Sexual Abuse TASA ID: 1385 The frequency of false allegations of sexual abuse by children and adolescents is of signifcant legal and clinical importance. Many professionals in the field of child sexual abuse are more skeptical of child claims of sexual abuse than ever before. Research on false allegations and recantation of sexual abuse has produced signifcant evidence related to how and why children make false allegations. Read more
