As an expert witness my role involves deduction, education and technical support. First, through plaintiff testimony and product inspection I deduce the cause of the failure. Next, I educate and support the legal team to prepare their case strategy. The deposition follows where I confirm my findings for the incident and provide my opinions; I will also review the deposition of the opposing expert witness and dispute their opinions as necessary. Finally, in layman’s terms, I will educate the jury on the cause of the lithium-ion battery event to allow them to come up with an informed verdict.
I have autopsied well over 1000 lithium-ion batteries in my career for failure analysis, new battery development and battery design verification.
When it is not possible to perform an actual autopsy, we will look inside the cell using X-ray and CT scans as shown below.
One area that I have been heavily involved in is exploding e-cigarette (vaping) batteries. There have been a growing number of incidents primarily due to the incredible market growth. I have a solid understanding and experience with vaping cases. These are two pictures of a failed lithium-ion cell inside a mechanical mod.
My schedule is extremely flexible allowing me to support your legal team to the nth degree.