Monthly Archives: July 2014

15 Quotes to Live By

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Life is a journey is it not? Travel, progress, open roads, they are all just metaphors for living without the knowledge of what’s to come. There have been some wonderful quotes about the journey of life that inspire us to keep going, to keep living.

Some good ones are:

1. Life to me is a journey- you never know what may be your next destination ­- David Russell

2. There is great meaning in life for those who are willing to journey – Jim England

3. The journey is the reward – Chinese proverb

4. The only journey is the one within – Rainer Maria Rilke

5. Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us – Samuel Smiles

6. Nothing shorten a journey so pleasantly as an account of misfortunes at which the hearer is permitted to laugh – Quentin Crisp

7. Life is not a journey to the grave with intentions of arriving safely in a pretty well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming WOW! What a ride!

8. We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey – Kenji Miyazawa

9. The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours- it is an amazing journey- and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins – Bob Moawad

10. We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell then world the glories of our journey – John Hope Franklin

11. I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom – Les Brown

12. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself – Alan Alda

13. He who knows others is learned; he who knows himself is wise – Lao-tzu

14. You cannot dream yourself into a character, you must hammer and forge yourself one – James A. Froude

15. There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered – Nelson Mandela

How will you start your journey? A balloon trip perhaps? Create experiences that you’ll never forget.

Balloon Safaris provides hot air balloon flights all over England. All departure points are easily commutable from London. Find out more about Hot Air Balloon Ride. Flying with Balloon Safaris is an experience you’ll never forget. http://www.balloonsafaris.co.uk/

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The Straight Truth: The Life of an Expert Witness

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The Straight Truth: The Life of an Expert Witness

The Straight Truth: The Life of an Expert Witness

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Have you been wondering how to turn your experience and expertise into a lucrative and rewarding second career? This book is for everyone seeking The Straight Truth about the highly rewarding, high-stakes world of the expert witness. In these pages, the author shares valuable information about launching, marketing, building, and conducting an expert witness practice-but he does not stop there. Gulya discusses actual cases on which he served as an expert witness, revealing lessons learned, and al

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Commodity Futures Quotes – Have You Thought About Charting Software?

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In March, oil had fallen to around $ 50.00 a barrel and many expected it to go even lower. However, in defiance of such optimistic expectations, oil started to rise and as of this writing oil has risen to $ 66.33 per barrel. At least one member of OPEC is predicting a rise to $ 75.00 per barrel in the very near future. While such a rise and predicted rises are bad news for consumers, they are good news for investors in commodities and rising oil prices are indicators of what many experts are saying will be continued increases in commodity futures prices for the next 12 to 20 years. Thus, if you are investing in commodities, then commodity futures quotes are important to you and charting software is the best tool to help you keep up with this ever changing data.

There are many factors which suggest a rise in oil and other commodities prices to continue such as instability in some oil producing countries which point to a possible shortage at a time when India and China are becoming hungrier consumers – hungry for oil and gas as well as for food. Food is one of the leading components of commodity exchanges and as demand increases, so does the prices of goods needed by a growing global population and expanding consumer base. Then there is the threat of inflation as a necessary byproduct of the global economy meltdown. Even though politicians and economists alike are talking about the beginning of the end to the global economic crisis later this year, some economists are worried about rising inflation. And although inflation might be a bad thing for some, it is a good event for commodities if it causes a rise in prices.

Some investment advisers have documented that commodities prices move in certain patterns which can be charted and doing so helps you to spot when it is about to break one way or the other – go higher or fall lower. Commodity futures quotes help you to see where a commodities price is at any given moment. Charts help you to make sense of that raw data and to know when a commodity is about to break one way or the other.

Learning to invest wisely could be one of the best decisions you make for you and your family. To learn more about commodity trading basics visit our website at http://commoditytradingfaq.com

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What to Include at a Minimum in an Expert Witness Report

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I include entries for various telephone discussions I had with people in the case, and meetings with additional personnel. I make explicit reference to every document I read, every folder of data I received, and every CD or DVD or other electronic material I received.
Further, I list every legal document provided to me as reference material for the case. Every report written by other professionals or related parties in the matter is also listed, as are any deposition transcripts provided to me.  You should list the names of on point people you met, things you discussed, actions you took, and materials you reviewed. Your report can also contain any equipment you used, tests you ran, and reconstructions you made. You can explain in detail any analyses or assumptions you made, and any assignments that your attorney may have expressly given to you.
You should make clear that you considered the relevant facts you discovered in the above materials and that you then applied suitable procedures and methodologies to those facts. Altogether, this demonstrates that you understood the issues, the events, and the systems involved, and that the facts and methodologies together contribute to the reliability of the opinions you drew. If you made use of other exhibits or evidence that you wish to use in subsequent trial testimony, refer to them here.  If you have created or intend to create any demonstrative exhibits, make reference to them here as well. This might include graphs, mockups, or any other visual materials that you believe will help you better explain your opinions. You can include demonstrative evidence like this for your eventual testimony as one way to keep the jury’s attention and to further Enhance your credibility.
Not only can the means justify the end, but they must. In my expert reports, I always include a final section that summarizes in boldface each opinion I’ve reached and every opinion I will express if the matter comes to trial. To support each opinion, you can refer back to earlier portions of your report, and you can include extra text that further explains the basis for each opinion.
If you have had the opportunity to review the opposing expert’s report, simply include an entire analysis of the report.  Avoid commenting on the validity of any of the expert’s opinions, simply look at the work, comment on any errors you find in it, and note any invalid assumptions made that may undermine the validity of a conclusion drawn or opinion expressed by the other expert.
When you are selected for the defendant’s side, the plaintiff’s expert’s report will appear first, and you will read that expert’s opinions. While you may not have initially considered some of the opinions expressed, look at each one to determine if it is accurate and assess whether the opinion (accurate or not) has been fully supported by the facts, procedures, and methodologies followed by that expert.  Pay particular attention to whether the expert has overstated the evidence, not just where he might have stated erroneous opinions.
Just remember that you are not a lawyer. Never express legal opinions, either in writing or in testimony. However, understanding the legal elements of your case can often enable you to suggest industry experience that will support your attorney’s efforts. Ask your attorney early on about the legal issues involved in the case. What can he or she tell you about how your findings relate to those legal issues? Don’t just stop there. Conduct your own research on the Internet about the legal issues so that you understand any ramifications facing the Lawyers. In this way, you can focus your efforts more intelligently.

Judd Robbins has been an internationally recognized expert witness since 1986 in the US and in the UK. In 2010, his book “Expert Witness Training” was published by Presentation Dynamics. Robbins has advanced degrees from UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan, has been an Information Systems manager and an Education Systems manager, and consults in both computer and legal issues. Learn more about Mr. Robbins and his Expert Witness Training materials at www.juddrobbins.com

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Has Your Work as an Expert Witness Been ?Peer Reviewed’?

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In the 1993 Supreme Court case “Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals,” Justice Blackmun said for the unanimous court that an expert’s testimony has to rest on a reliable foundation and has to be relevant to the task at hand. He brought up the key consideration about whether the theory or technique used can be or has been tested and subjected to ‘peer review’ and publication.
Expert witnesses have seen their work rejected and their testimony excluded when they haven’t attended to Daubert standards of peer review.
Identify another specialist in your field that the court can treat as a peer. So if you are a biomedical engineer, another biomedical engineer would be a peer, and so on. Your attorney can retain this person to review your work, specifically your expert report. A peer reviewer would provide his own report of findings regarding the subject matter of your expert report. Yes, this may sound like double work, but an increasingly appropriate and valuable extra step. If another expert independently verifies the validity of your work, it will help to ensure the legal admissibility of that work. In addition, this extra step can bring extra credibility to your work. This will further support the relevancy and reliability of your work, opinion, and testimony.
The peer reviewer should submit his report directly to the law firm that engaged both of you. By and large, your attorney will submit your expert report, along with the peer reviewer’s report and a CV describing the peer reviewer’s background, training, and skills. You should not have any contact with the peer reviewer after the law firm retains him and before he submits his report back to them. Keep the points of this paragraph in mind because, from time to time, you may be hired in a case as a peer reviewer rather than as an expert witness.
Sometimes a peer review is called a third-party review, because the other party may not be a precise peer, but may still be a specialist in a related field of expertise. You should use such a third-party reviewer if part of your testimony includes information that is close to, but not specifically part of, your primary experience.

Judd Robbins has been an internationally recognized expert witness since 1986 in the US and in the UK. In 2010, his book “Expert Witness Training” was published by Presentation Dynamics. Robbins has advanced degrees from UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan, has been an Information Systems manager and an Education Systems manager, and consults in both computer and legal issues. Learn more about Mr. Robbins and his Expert Witness Training materials at www.juddrobbins.com

Understanding the Fundamentals of Writing an Expert Witness Report

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The expert report is a cornerstone of your contribution to the case. It is the primary written piece of work, just as your testimony in deposition or court is the primary verbal piece of work. Before writing your expert report, you will spend time researching, explaining, listening, and meeting. Everything you write down will become the subject of interrogation or discussion.
Realize that some attorneys may use your writings long after a case ends. Bright attorneys will frequently look to the records of your previous cases to see what you have said, how you have said it, and what mistakes you may have made. These writings will guide them to whether you may be an suitable witness for them to engage. Then again, they can research your previous statements to use against you. They may look at the way you wrote something, or if what you wrote previously relates to a current opinion that you’re expressing in a new case. Be alert to whether a new case you’ve accepted leads to an opinion that differs from one you may have expressed in a previous case. An industrious attorney will probably find out any differences and call you on them.
Your expert report will need to meet legal standards. It should be organized, easy to read, professional, and effective. Depending on the complexity of the case, you will have one or more opinions about the subject of the case. You should precede your opinions with your background and accomplishments to describe who you are and why you are qualified to present those opinions.
Precisely express your opinions. Explicitly list the information you considered while coming to your opinions, and show which pieces of facts directly support those opinions. describe exactly what steps you followed and/or what technical methodologies you used as the basis for the conclusions you reached. include required extra facts, such as your contact data and your fee schedule.

Judd Robbins has been an internationally recognized expert witness since 1986 in the US and in the UK. In 2010, his book “Expert Witness Training” was published by Presentation Dynamics. Robbins has advanced degrees from UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan, has been an Information Systems manager and an Education Systems manager, and consults in both computer and legal issues. Learn more about Mr. Robbins and his Expert Witness Training materials at www.juddrobbins.com

For more information: http://www.icc-cpi.int Situation: The Republic of Kenya Case: The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang This issue of …

Maintaining Chain of Custody as an Expert Witness

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Understanding the concept of a chain of custody is always critical to the use of evidence in a legal proceeding. As an expert witness, you do not always form a part of the legal ‘chain’. sometimes, you are given access to evidence in a secure facility and some one else is responsible for having obtained it and signed for the responsibility of the evidence. Depending on your particular discipline, you may in fact be given the original evidence itself. You must know how to properly handle it!
sometimes, your inspections of equipment, devices, or machinery will lead you to evidence that the police have seized as part of their investigation. They may require that you run your tests or make your observations in the police lockup, which is a location for holding evidence to be used in a criminal proceeding. You may occasionally be given temporary custody of evidence from the opposing side. When you receive admitted evidence, which has been given exhibit numbers by the authorities, you must maintain what is called a chain of custody.
Treat a chain of custody as a paper trail for the location of any piece of evidence in a legal matter. The paper trail shows where the evidence was and is, moment by moment, and assures everyone that it is the same evidence that was originally seized.
The chain of custody must be maintained from the moment the authorities first seize the evidence, until the final moment when it may be shown and referred to in a trial. Paper records must document changes in the custodianship of evidence: who transferred possession of the item, who accepted possession, the date of the transfer, the method of transfer, and additional data to identify the evidence precisely. sometimes, witness signatures are also required.
If the evidence is lost or destroyed while in your possession, you could be held legally and financially accountable. Be careful.

Judd Robbins has been an internationally recognized expert witness since 1986 in the US and in the UK. In 2010, his book “Expert Witness Training” was published by Presentation Dynamics. Robbins has advanced degrees from UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan, has been an Information Systems manager and an Education Systems manager, and consults in both computer and legal issues. Learn more about Mr. Robbins and his Expert Witness Training materials at www.juddrobbins.com

Dr. Joanna Greenwood Joins Applied DNA Sciences as Technical Director, EMEA

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Stony Brook, NY (PRWEB) May 01, 2014

Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: APDN), (Twitter: @APDN), a biotech firm that provides DNA-based authentication and security solutions, announced today the appointment of a new member of its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) team. Dr. Joanna Greenwood, who is well known and respected throughout the United Kingdom and European Forensic taggant industry for her extensive knowledge, experience and integrity, has joined APDN as Technical Director, EMEA.

Dr. Greenwood holds a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from Cambridge University in England and a B.Sc. with first class honours from Durham University as well as having a plethora of research publications to her name. Jo previously served at SmartWater Technology Limited, rising to the position of Director of Technical Services.

Her experience notably includes:

Over 16 years of expertise in analytical chemistry techniques, specializing in the detection of trace elements
The development and validation of new methods of analysis and sample preparation
Expertise in the field of data interpretation especially as it relates to trace evidence
Management of ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratories
Quality control analysis and quality management systems
Extensive experience in law courts as an expert witness, and,
Technical author of a British Standards Institute

On joining APDN, Dr. Greenwood commented, “I am very much looking forward to working with the Applied DNA Sciences EMEA team, supporting new and existing clients in their use of APDN’s ground-breaking forensic solutions to combat criminal activity. The opportunity to be part of an organization with such a strong emphasis on innovation and bringing new, technologically advanced, products to market, is particularly exciting.”

Tony Benson, Managing Director for EMEA said, “Having Jo on board will bring significant benefits to our EMEA clients as we expand operationally in the region with a broader technology solution set and the laboratory and forensic services that provide the full backstop of assurance for our customers. I have no doubt that Jo will both enjoy the role and excel in her new environment at APDN where our people are recognized as our most valuable assets.”

Dr. James Hayward, CEO of Applied DNA Sciences, stated, “Jo’s scientific and business acumen fit perfectly with our technology and business road maps. Her experience will help us make the world a better, more authentic place.”

About Applied DNA Sciences

APDN is a provider of botanical-DNA based security and authentication solutions and services that can help protect products, brands, entire supply chains, and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion. SigNature® DNA describes the uncopyable marker that is at the heart of all of our security and authentication solutions. SigNature DNA is at the core of a family of products such as DNAnet®, our antitheft product, SigNature T®, targeted toward textiles, and digitalDNA®, providing powerful track and trace. All provide a forensic chain of evidence and can be used to prosecute perpetrators.

The statements made by APDN may be forward-looking in nature. Forward-looking statements describe APDN’s future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and are based on assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of APDN. Actual results could differ materially from those projected due to our short operating history, limited financial resources, limited market acceptance, market competition and various other factors detailed from time to time in APDN’s SEC reports and filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed on December 20, 2013 and our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. APDN undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.







Ensuring Admissibility of Your Work as an Expert Witness

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Playing by the regulations of this legal game will help ensure the admissibility of your work. The goal is to convince people that your opinions are sound. Your investigations and overall work will help you to do just that. After you collect, review and study all the data about the technical elements of a case, perform the required tests, and follow necessary methodologies, you can form opinions that you can express in an expert report or in testimony.
What you do will help you technically and professionally come to the best opinions. How you do it will help ensure that your opinions are seen as ‘admissible’ and that they will be allowed to be heard in court.
Remember, you are on a playing field called ‘the law.’ You have to play by the rules in this game:
1.  You must be familiar with the facts in the case and the sequence of any events that happened.
2.  You must carefully document tests run, observations made, and measurements taken. contain all results, whether positive or negative.
3.  Any demonstrations you plan to use during testimony have to be substantially the same as the events in the case.
4.  Any materials you use in tests must be the same as were involved in the case.
5.  You must document all steps followed and methods used. Use industry literature and publications to show that the chosen tests or methods are recognized as authoritative in your field.
6.  Think About with your attorney whether to use and pay for an independent peer review of your analyses and work.
You very well might do strong investigative and preparatory work, but you are not an attorney so you will not know about all the legal elements of the lawyer’s case. occasionally you have to meet legal standards that vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction; explicitly ask your attorney about the standards for your particular jurisdiction so you can choose the tests you run. For example, Maryland, Rhode Island, or California may use different legal tests for insanity. As a psychologist, perhaps, you need that data so you can pose the right questions.
attorneys will use numerous tactics to raise objections about the validity and admissibility of you, your evidence, and your opinions. Anticipate the following possibilities:
*  You are not qualified by knowledge, skill, qualifications, training, or education in the scientific field needed for this case. In advance, prepare your explanation of why your background does indeed qualify you to offer opinions about the facts in this matter.
*  Your opinions did not flow from reliable facts or data. Again, be ready to show that the facts were reliable and that your opinions did reasonably flow from them.
*  You did not use reliable methods in your work. Prepare to cite examples from your field and its literature that show that you did.
*  You did not run enough tests or collect enough data to justify your conclusions quantitatively. Keep accurate notes and be prepared to show that you ran the tests and collected the data needed.
*  You haven’t used qualitatively relevant conclusions. Make sure the facts you rely on, and the opinions you suggest, are directly on point to the case.
*  You relied on hearsay to form your opinions. Ensure that any facts you use, whatever the source, is routinely relied on by experts in your field.

Judd Robbins has been an internationally recognized expert witness since 1986 in the US and in the UK. In 2010, his book “Expert Witness Training” was published by Presentation Dynamics. Robbins has advanced degrees from UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan, has been an Information Systems manager and an Education Systems manager, and consults in both computer and legal issues. Learn more about Mr. Robbins and his Expert Witness Training materials at www.juddrobbins.com

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The Expert Witness

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The Expert Witness

The Expert Witness

The principal aim of this book is to provide guidance and encouragement for the expert who is a newcomer to personal participation in legal proceedings in his or her professional role. “book is intended to fulfil: not to furnish grist for the intense analysis of recondite issues, but to give professionals without extensive experience of the adversarial way of resolving disputes a practical introduction to the problems which they are likely to face, and to the ways in which they should prepare f

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