Application Corner: Be the expert

All of us have our preferences as to the type of work we enjoy. Lately, my preference is to work on legal cases as an expert witness. Applying my expertise to clearly explain the events that occurred and provide an opinion as to their origin allows clients to decide whether to proceed or settle. This can help reduce the considerable angst experienced by litigants as the legal proceedings progress.

In some cases, legal proceedings should not have been filed. However, plaintiffs tend to sue those involved as well as uninvolved, so even obvious bystanders often have to obtain legal counsel and expert(s) to refute the plaintiff’s claims in order to be removed from the lawsuit. In one such case, a plaintiff brought legal action against nearly 10 companies regarding the failure of an impulse tube, including the manufacturer of the instrument attached to the impulse tube. The case was eventually closed against the instrument manufacturer, but it took over a year for the legal proceedings to play out, and my involvement started in the middle of the proceeding. 

In other cases, analysis can help clients minimize legal expenses by exposing their vulnerabilities such that settling or not filing legal action becomes prudent. In one such case, a restaurant owner suspected that the new natural gas flowmeter was measuring too high, whereas analysis indicated it was reasonable. As such, the restaurant owner did not take any action.  

David W. Spitzer is a principal at Spitzer and Boyes, LLC, which offers engineering, focused market research, writing/editing white papers, strategic marketing consulting, distribution consulting, seminars and expert witness services for manufacturing and automation companies. Spitzer has written more than 400 technical articles and 10 books about flow measurement, instrumentation and process control. He can be reached at 845-623-1830 or via spitzerandboyes.com.