LITIGATION SUPPORT AND EXPERT WITNESS CONSULTANT
Dr. Miholits' forte: (1) find the reason for engineering failures at civil
 and nuclear facilities; (2) prevent engineering problems at these facilities;
and (3) perform comprehensive literature research and analysis.

HOW TO CONTACT DR. MIHOLITS
Phone: 650.712.1015
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
drernie@em2-engineering-consultants.com

SYNOPSIS

BUSINESS LINE 1 — LITIGATION SUPPORT AND EXPERT WITNESS CONSULTING SERVICES

• TARGET AUDIENCE: Dr. Miholits' target audience for this business line is described in detail below under bullet 5. In brief, it includes: (1) the legal community, and (2) the engineering firms that provide direct litigation support consulting to the legal community. Dr. Miholits services are directed toward litigation support consulting (i.e., forensic & expert witness services) on high-profile projects and facilities after a major failure or accident has occurred. He does this in accordance with the 1993 Daubert Criteria. For more information, please click on —► Litigation Support and Expert Witness  [Note: website was optimized for a resolution of 1024 by 768 and greater]

• EXPERIENCE: Dr. Miholits has over 25 years of experience working on complex high-profile engineering projects (e.g., civil, nuclear, environmental, etc.) and scientific projects (e.g., physics, chemistry, etc.). Note: he does not limit his services to high-profile projects, as he can work equally well on less sensitive engineering projects. For Dr. Miholits' qualifications and experience on high-profile projects, plus his technical report writing and presentation experience, please click on —► Curriculum Vitae  

• HIGH-PROFILE ENGINEERING FACILITIES AND LITIGATION: High-profile facilities that have experienced a failure and/or accident also have an increased probability that litigation will result, as compared to less sensitive projects. For a definition of high-profile projects, please click on —► Litigation Support

  • Very large and significant failures or accidents that occur at the high-profile engineering facilities described herein all have some form of risky, perilous, hazardous and/or dangerous characteristics that can result in significant legal ramifications.

  • These projects may also have significant health and safety risks (hazardous, toxic waste, radioactive materials, ionizing radiation, etc.) that can lead to severe injury or death.

  • Dr. Miholits does litigation support work, such as:

    • Forensic type engineering analysis of the failure and/or accident including an evaluation of the design, standards, specifications, regulations, et cetera.

    • Literature research, analysis and evaluations of the science, engineering and medical evidence base related to the facility design.

    • The combination of the material in bullets 1 and 2 is used to create the report the attorneys will use to build their legal arguments.

    • The follow-on steps in the legal process including the expert witness phase (i.e. depositions, court testimony, etc.).

  • Evidence on both sides of the argument will be studied, analyzed and evaluated in detail for the legal community. The latter will be in accordance with the 1993 U.S. Supreme Court decision entitled, the 1993 Daubert Criteria. For an explanation of The Daubert Criteria and how it relates to the Litigation Support and Expert Witness services offered herein, please click on the hyperlinks —► Litigation Support and Expert Witness

• EXPERT WITNESS SERVICES: Expert witness services are available for both high-profile and non high-profile facilities:
  • High-profile engineering-type facility. At these facilities, failures, accidents and/or other undesirable events and incidents may occur. The services provided to the legal firms include: (1) forensic research; (2) literature search, analysis and evaluations; (3) report preparations; (4) depositions; (5) testimony; (6) other litigation support services; and (7) et cetera. A partial list of the issues that will be addressed to develop the attorney's evidence base includes:
    • Science and engineering problems that can result from these undesirable incidents include, but are not limited to: (1) effects on the environment; (2) hazardous and toxic waste releases; (3) structural failures; (4) radiation exposures to people; (5) various forms of nuclear fuel cycle consequences; and (6) other undesirable consequences.
    • Problems that occur because of engineering-related failures, accidents or other types of incidents at research, manufacturing and other types of high-profile engineered facilities are listed in Section 2 of the Litigation Support web page. Please click on —► Litigation Support
    • Undesirable consequences of failures and/or accidents that can result and could lead to litigation actions include, but are not limited to: injuries, death, health effects, significant financial losses, significant disruption in research schedules, et cetera.
    • Any other engineering issues that are pertinent to the litigation evidence base will be addressed as appropriate.
  • Non high-profile engineering facility. This includes failures and/or accidents at less-sensitive facilities such as, sanitary waste, worker safety, et cetera.
  The above described issues will be addressed as appropriate.
• TARGET AUDIENCE (detailed): Dr. Miholits' target audience for his litigation support and expert witness consulting activity includes:
  • Legal firms who have Clients:
    • Who are companies who own/operate a high-profile facility where a failure and/or accident has already occurred. The facility then has instigated legal action against the appropriate groups, such as the engineers who designed the facility, the constructors, the equipment suppliers, et cetera. The facility types are named above.
    • Who are employees or individuals who are or were employees at a high-profile facility. These employees then instigated legal action against this company because a failure and/or accident has already occurred and these people are alleging injury, health problems, et cetera.
    The facility types are named above.
  • Engineering expert witness firms who are working for legal firms doing the above described work.
  • Expert witness staffing firms who provide consultants to legal firms and/or engineering expert witness firms that are doing the above described work.
  • For more information on the expert witness subject areas, please click on —► Expert Witness

BUSINESS LINE 2 — PROACTIVE ENGINEERING CONSULTING SERVICES TO ENGINEERING FIRMS

• TARGET AUDIENCE: Dr. Miholits' target audience for this business line are engineering firms. His services are directed towards improving the design of existing facilities so as to forestall or prevent failures and/or accidents from occurring. For more information, please click on —► Proactive Engineering

• EXPERIENCE: Dr. Miholits enhanced his skills in this business line by leading an engineering group that performed a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) on the WIPP defense nuclear waste repository in Carlsbad, NM. The analysis is also known by the names fault-tree analysis or event-tree analysis or decision-tree analysis. Please refer to Section 3 and 4 of the webpage on Litigation Support by clicking on —► Litigation Support

• PROACTIVE ENGINEERING SERVICES: Because he has performed this kind of high-profile engineering work, he provides engineering services in these areas. In this regard, he  has: (1) enhanced his development as a two-way analytical thinker; and (2) developed the ability to use reverse engineering techniques as part of his normal thought process. Consequently, (1) he sees potential failures in the design before the facility is built; and (2) he sees the potential failure and/or accident scenarios in a constructed facility before the failure/accident occurs. It follows then that he uses this same skill to determine the cause of a failure and/or accident. For Dr. Miholits' experience, please click on —► Curriculum Vitae

  • Dr. Miholits has worked on business line 2 projects for over 25 years before he recently broadened his consulting business by the addition of business line 1.

  • Business lines 1 and 2 are closely related. The Litigation Support webpage illustrates the similarity between the knowledge, skills and credentials required to be effective in both business lines. Please click on —► Litigation Support

• TARGET AUDIENCE (detailed): Dr. Miholits' target audience for his proactive engineering consulting activity includes:
  • Expert witness engineering companies. He will assist them in a design analysis and provide direction to ensure that a failure, accident or other form of incident does not occur. Project types are briefly described above.
  • He offers engineering services directly to the owners/operators of high-profile facilities who have questions as to whether certain elements of their facility could have a failure and/or accident and would a design upgrade forestall a failure.
  • Specifically, he offers these services to prevent a failure and/or accident from occurring through the use of timely re-designs.
  • Dr. Miholits can assist you in problem solving. He does this through design analysis followed by upgraded designs that will prevent failures and accidents from occurring in the following ways.
    • Dr. Miholits specializes in the design phase of high-profile projects, such as civil, environmental and nuclear facilities. He also deals with other science and engineering projects that are less visible, risky and dangerous. This expertise is very valuable and could be effectively used to analyze failures and accidents for the legal community.
    • Dr. Miholits defines high-profile projects as those civil and nuclear facilities that have issues in the areas of: hazardous & toxic materials; radiation health, safety & protection; environmental health & safety; and related areas.
  • For information on the engineering consulting subject areas and related questions, please click on —► Proactive Engineering
  • For an expanded discussion on High-Profile Facilities, please see web page 2. Please click on —► Litigation Support

BUSINESS LINE 3 — COMPREHENSIVE SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING LITERATURE RESEARCH SEARCHES AND EVALUATIONS

• TARGET AUDIENCE: Dr. Miholits' target audience for this business line includes science and engineering researchers who could use assistance finding credible and high-quality literature which meets their specific needs and requirements.

• EXPERIENCE: Dr. Miholits' experience was gained through university research and twenty-five years of experience on civil, environmental and nuclear projects.  On these projects he did research, analysis and evaluation of the engineering and scientific literature. Through his research experience he can ensure that his clients will receive the documents they need to meet their specific needs and requirements. He can do this because he has excellent search skills and his education and experience includes a wide-range of science and engineering subjects.  Please click on —► Curriculum Vitae

• WHAT SERVICES DOES DR. MIHOLITS PROVIDE?  Dr. Miholits can assist you by doing the necessary research, analysis and evaluation of the engineering and scientific literature. His research will ensure that you be directed to the documents you need to meet your specific needs and requirements. He can do this because he has excellent search skills and his education and experience in science and with a wide-range of science and engineering subjects; and (3) effectively perform a worthwhile (useful and valuable) literature search, research, analysis and evaluation assignment. He also does non-technical searches.

• LITERATURE RESEARCH SERVICES: Dr. Miholits performs comprehensive scientific and engineering literatures searches and evaluations to support business lines 1 and 2, as well as for "Stand-alone Requests." For more details, please see the Literature Research webpage. Please click on —► Literature Research

The rationale for the three business lines and their interrelationship to one another is described above and in more detail on the 1993 Daubert Criteria web-page. Please click on —► Litigation Support

End of Home Page — Page 1 of 6