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My depth of knowledge in normal and abnormal human movement, along with my extensive

physical therapy experience, makes me an ideal expert witness for cases involving slips, trips

and falls, shoulders, gait, physical therapy, ethics, balance, and biomechanics as well as orthopedics (surgical and non-surgical interventions),geriatrics and rehabilitation litigation. As a consultant, I provide services on rehabilitation-related topics as well as insight into medical reports, documentation, and exams.

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Expert Witness Consultant

• Over 30 years as a physical therapist (PT) specializing in orthopedics, rehabilitation and risk factors for slips, trips and falls in the geriatric patient as well as injuries inboth Olympic and professional athletes.

• Close working relationship with orthopedic surgeons to describe new surgical procedures (primarily shoulder procedures) and outcomes

• Researcher with over 100 scientific articles on orthopedics and physical therapy

• Rehabilitation speaker at international and national conferences

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Specific experience:

One example will be on the defense side and one on the plaintiff side.The case as an expert witness on the defense side involved an orthopedic patient who believed a PT had injured his surgically repaired shoulder.I was able to call upon my orthopedic background as a PT, researcher and lecturer to review documentation and elucidate the case as it moved forward to trial and was at ease in presenting the expert perspective in response to the plaintiff attorney’s questions.The example on the plaintiff side is a case in which the PT was rehabilitating a geriatric patient with balance problems in the physical therapy clinic. The patient tripped and fell doing a new exercise involving stepping up onto a platform. The geriatric patient was not wearing a gait belt nor was the PT providing contact supervision.The end result for this geriatric patient was a fall with a severe orthopedic shoulder injury.

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I believe that the work as an expert witness consultant not only requires ‘expertise’, but also a flexible mind to figure out where the opposing counsel’s line of inquiry is going and hit that end-goal early and clearly; a clear mind to address the questions in a manner the jury can understand; a solid memory so that when the plaintiff attorney pulls information out of context, it can be addressed at the first moment; and a comfortable mind such that it can quickly, succinctly and easily respond to questions while keeping an eye on jury interest.

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If you are interested in my consulting services as an expert witness, please contact me via phone or E-mail 

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An expert witness is really a sub-division of consultant.  As a consultant, I have worked with issues related to the shoulder, gait, balance, slips, trips and falls as well as ethics.  The aforementioned case was also an issue of ethics.  The question arose as to whether it was ethical for the PT to be doing a new balance activity on a patient without a gait belt.  Ethically, if there is no gait belt, you lose.

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Ethics underlies many cases involving physical therapy.During litigation, ethics is sometimes a ‘soft ball’ with ill-defined parameters.As a knowledgeable expert witness consultant, I can put boundaries around those parameters as well as bring in research to make ethics a definable ‘hard ball’.

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Please note that I do not take all cases. As an expert, I believe it is my job to lay the case out underlining the winning, as well as the loosing and the interpretable points. This information is shared with the attorney. I take cases where I believe I can add value as well as assist in the win in the court of law.  If I believe I am not the right expert witness, I may be able to refer the attorney to another expert.