We have abstracts available for each of these presentations. Contact us if you're interested and we'd be happy to provide them
In this interactive webinar, we will explore the process of determining collision severity, applying vehicle dynamics to understand occupant motion, determining injury risk, and assessing collision forces in the context of activities of daily living.
Sideswipe collisions between heavy trucks and passenger vehicles are common on U.S. roadways. These incidents can result in considerable vehicle damage that is disproportionate to the loading experienced by the occupant. Consequently, substantial injuries are often claimed by sideswipe occupants. In this interactive webinar, we will explore the process of determining collision severity, applying vehicle dynamics to understand occupant motion, determining injury risk, and assessing collision forces in the context of activities of daily living. We will place particular emphasis on the role of a biomechanical engineer, admissibility of biomechanical testimony, injury mechanisms for commonly-claimed injuries, and simulation and visualization tools used to create powerful demonstratives for trial.
The Trampoline Court Safety Act was passed in Michigan requiring owners to comply with American Society for Testing and Material Safety Standards.
Additionally, this act prescribed the liabilities of the operators and users of the courts. While this act does provide Trampoline Parks with some protection, lawsuits can still arise if there is question of negligence by park employees. In these cases, it is imperative to understand how the injury in question was sustained. Dr. Keith Button, a biomechanist, will go over how biomechanics can be a powerful tool when investigating if an injury was caused by negligence or discarded rules.
This course will discuss tools and technology that are currently used in forensic engineering and forensic accident reconstruction. Examples and insights will be discussed through a series of case studies.
Gathering evidence from the incident location and involved objects can provide substantial insight into the pre-incident, incident, and post-incident aspects of the event.
This course will discuss the currently available tools used in forensic reconstruction. Examples and insights into getting the evidence will be discussed. Additionally, specific case studies as well as availability and limitations and acceptance in the courts will be discussed.
The biomechanics associated with a closed head injury is incredibly complex and requires a thorough understanding of the numerous studies performed to date.
The primary objective of the current course is to arm non-technical legal practitioners with practical, essential knowledge related to the mechanics of closed head injury. Specifically, participants will be given a brief but essential primer in the basic physics associated with head impact. The different metrics generally used to characterize head impact severity will be reviewed with specific attention to which values are, or are not used in the design of helmets (football, motorcycle, etc.) Additionally, the primary injuries associated with closed head injury (diffuse Axonal injury, subdural hematoma, subarachnoid hematoma, intraventricular hemorrhage) and the previous research regarding their mechanisms will be reviewed. Finally, application of the knowledge to specific helmeted vs. unhelmeted scenarios will be performed.
This presentation is a refresher for attorneys to illustrate (from the expert's perspective) the relationship between the attorney and expert in accident analysis and investigation.
Attorneys practicing personal injury or product liability law frequently employ technical experts to assist with the engineering and scientific issues of their cases. Knowledge of the expert’s process and the resources experts use to produce the highest quality work can lead to much more effective development and use of the expert's testimony.
Warning and safety information in the United States are often available with a product or within a certain environment.
They are provided in an attempt to encourage safe behavior and reduce overall risk of injury. For the past 30 years, there has been a vast amount of literature created and research performed into the use and design of such warnings. Additionally, there are certain practices, standards, and regulations related to the presentation of safety information for products, environments, and tasks.
This course aims to arm legal practitioners with practical and essential knowledge related to the development of warnings and instructions, and their purpose.
Proper documentation of the scene so that it can be used as a demonstrative requires planning and specialized expertise.
Utilizing the appropriate exemplar vehicle, providing the proper perspective, documenting all the relevant information, and selecting the appropriate camera angle and camera settings are all factors that need to be considered to capture an accurate representation of the visual stimulus that is available.
This presentation will describe the technologies used to investigate, test, analyze, simulate, and visualize an incident, including real time interactive 3D visualizations with Virtual Reality capabilities. Specific examples will include vehicle headlamp mapping, trailer side underside impacts, drone mapping, dash cam video analysis, and animation/simulation integration.
The objective of this presentation is to gain practical and essential knowledge related to:
This course will describe the technologies used to investigate, test, analyze, simulate, and visualize an incident.
The course will focus on the ultimate development of interactive virtual reality (VR) courtroom demonstratives from inception to completion. The development of admissible and compelling interactive VR courtroom demonstratives requires planning, state-of-the-art tools, and specialized expertise. The objective of this course is to arm legal practitioners with knowledge related to:
Properly wearing a seat belt dramatically reduces the risk of occupant death or serious injury in motor vehicle crashes.
In some jurisdictions and circumstances, failure to wear a seat belt can result in a reduction in damages that a plaintiff can recover in civil litigation. The primary objective of the current course is to equip non-technical legal practitioners with practical knowledge related to restraint system physical evidence to enable them to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their case. Specifically, participants will be given a brief but essential primer in basic physics associated with restraint systems, how seat belt components function, and how occupant loading can create physical evidence on restraint system components during a collision. Emphasis will be placed on how forensic investigators interpret restraint system physical evidence to distinguish between seat belt use, nonuse, and misuse by vehicle occupants. Finally, several case studies will be presented for context and application of the presented information.
Rear-end automotive collisions are common in the world of personal injury litigation.
Often, the injuries claimed from these cases involve lower back disc protrusions or herniations. The primary objective of the current course is to equip non-technical legal practitioners with practical knowledge related to disc herniation mechanics and occupant loading during rear-end collisions to enable them to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their case. Specifically, participants will be given a brief but essential primer in basic physics associated with rear-end collisions, occupant kinematics, and spine mechanics. Previous research on the mechanisms of disc herniations and the biomechanical environment experienced by occupants during rear-end impacts will be reviewed, as well as methods for estimating the precise, subject-specific loading environment of occupants in individual cases. Finally, a previous case analysis will be presented for context and application of this knowledge.
Although instant messaging applications (IM apps) have become very popular, their use for communication may not be considered as often as traditional voice and text message phone records when assessing accident causation due to potential driver distraction from phone usage.
The objective of this course is to arm non-technical legal practitioners with practical and essential knowledge related to the prevalence of the usage of IM apps, and the need to assess their usage in human factors investigations when assessing potential driver and pedestrian distractions due to smartphone usage. Specifically, participants will be given information on evolving communication preferences and behaviors, particularly around IM apps. The implications of IM apps in accident investigation and human factors analyses in the forensic field will be discussed, and initial tools will be provided for gathering data on IM app usage.
Operating a motor vehicle is becoming more a competition between tasks than about simply controlling a vehicle as it progresses down the road.
The government has instituted and supported nationwide programs and research efforts to address this quickly growing concern, which is being linked to more and more crashes (www.Distraction.gov). One statistic cites that distracted driving was involved in over 3,450 fatalities in 2016 alone.
While the public is starved for more information, more stimulation, more technology, this can create a serious conflict with what should be the primary focus of the driver. Technologies inside vehicles will continue to advance as they must and what is normal to one generation is unheard to a previous generation. Even today’s relevant technologies will quickly become dated; listing them would quickly make this description obsolete. However, as information present in vehicles increases over time, one thing is universal: human capabilities do not. The human limitations on processing information are well-defined finite. This requires the operators of vehicles to prioritize and attempt to optimize performance. When they fail or when the systems presented create conflicts, unwanted things can occur.
Research in this area continues to develop and continues to break new ground. As our understanding of the capabilities and limitations of people develop in relationship to new technologies, we must apply that new knowledge to the understanding of vehicle accidents and investigations.
The technological features incorporated into vehicle restraint systems can leave physical evidence on seat belt components during a collision even when the seat belt is non used by an occupant.
The primary objective of the current course is to equip non-technical legal practitioners with practical knowledge related to restraint system physical evidence to enable them to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their case. Specifically, participants will be given a brief but essential primer in how seat belt components function, and characteristics of seat belt physical evidence created by occupant loading. Emphasis will be placed on how the deployment of a seat belt pretensioner creates physical evidence on restraint system components during a collision. Several case studies will be presented for context and application of the presented information.
This course will review the proper methodology set out by the Federal Judicial Center in determining if a specific event resulted in the biomechanical environment associated with the causation of a certain medical condition.
Attendees of this course will be taught rudimentary physics concepts, which will enable them to better understand and analyze expert testimony. The course will focus on the methodologies utilized by experts in analyzing low-speed collisions, and what factual information and evidence is relevant to these analyses. Trial presentations from previous cases will be presented in order to provide context. Finally, the presenters extensive experience related to Daubert and admissibility of biomechanical testimony in Federal and Florida state courts will be reviewed.
Recent advances in technology and computing power has provided forensic investigators with numerous new tools to demonstrate their findings and analyses to jurors.
The validity, quality, and admissibility of these demonstrations starts with proper evidence preservation and data collection. The following course will review the classic and more modern tools forensic engineers are using to preserve evidence and collect data. The course will also review the benefits and potential pitfalls associated with performing testing, both physical and virtual. Finally, the course will demonstrate how proper evidence preservation, data collection, and testing can be utilized to generate immersive visualizations with the proper foundation for admissibility.
Warning and safety information in the United States are often available with a product or within a certain environment.
Proper documentation of the scene so that it can be used as a demonstrative requires planning and specialized expertise.
Although instant messaging applications (IM apps) have become very popular, their use for communication may not be considered as often as traditional voice and text message phone records when assessing accident causation due to potential driver distraction from phone usage.
Operating a motor vehicle is becoming more a competition between tasks than about simply controlling a vehicle as it progresses down the road.
In this interactive webinar, we will explore the process of determining collision severity, applying vehicle dynamics to understand occupant motion, determining injury risk, and assessing collision forces in the context of activities of daily living.
The Trampoline Court Safety Act was passed in Michigan requiring owners to comply with American Society for Testing and Material Safety Standards.
The biomechanics associated with a closed head injury is incredibly complex and requires a thorough understanding of the numerous studies performed to date.
Properly wearing a seat belt dramatically reduces the risk of occupant death or serious injury in motor vehicle crashes.
Rear-end automotive collisions are common in the world of personal injury litigation.
The technological features incorporated into vehicle restraint systems can leave physical evidence on seat belt components during a collision even when the seat belt is non used by an occupant.
This course will review the proper methodology set out by the Federal Judicial Center in determining if a specific event resulted in the biomechanical environment associated with the causation of a certain medical condition.
In this interactive webinar, we will explore the process of determining collision severity, applying vehicle dynamics to understand occupant motion, determining injury risk, and assessing collision forces in the context of activities of daily living.
This course will discuss tools and technology that are currently used in forensic engineering and forensic accident reconstruction. Examples and insights will be discussed through a series of case studies.
Proper documentation of the scene so that it can be used as a demonstrative requires planning and specialized expertise.
Properly wearing a seat belt dramatically reduces the risk of occupant death or serious injury in motor vehicle crashes.
The technological features incorporated into vehicle restraint systems can leave physical evidence on seat belt components during a collision even when the seat belt is non used by an occupant.
This course will describe the technologies used to investigate, test, analyze, simulate, and visualize an incident.
This course will discuss tools and technology that are currently used in forensic engineering and forensic accident reconstruction. Examples and insights will be discussed through a series of case studies.
Gathering evidence from the incident location and involved objects can provide substantial insight into the pre-incident, incident, and post-incident aspects of the event.
This presentation is a refresher for attorneys to illustrate (from the expert's perspective) the relationship between the attorney and expert in accident analysis and investigation.
This course will describe the technologies used to investigate, test, analyze, simulate, and visualize an incident.
Recent advances in technology and computing power has provided forensic investigators with numerous new tools to demonstrate their findings and analyses to jurors.
