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Litigation is not the most desirable answer for resolving a claim in any area. However, sometimes, a legitimate claim can be forced to litigation by defendant refusals to acknowledge the claim. Other times, false or overstated
claims are made, against which one must provide a scientific defense.
 We can help you avoid much of the high cost, time demands and, yes, emotional trauma of litigation, by giving you the fact-based scientific opinions to
encourage a fair settlement or to get an unsupported claim dismissed after a relatively low expenditure. If we can't help you to a fair resolution before full-blown litigation, we'll be there for you for deposition and trial,
armed with the scientific arguments which support your position. We'll help a jury understand your position from a scientific standpoint.
Dr.
Zeigler has served as a scientific consultant and/or expert witness in several
different litigation settings, most particularly as a defense expert in the huge breast
implant mass tort and as an expert in vibration damage occurrences. This litigation experience, coupled with
his scientific and personal integrity, can make him a resource for law firms and
large corporations facing significant technically-rooted litigation.
Experience
-
 Extensive experience in construction-caused
ground vibration damage to structures, including trial and deposition
testimony
- Sworn testimony in trial, deposition and hearing settings over 50 times in both medical device and vibration damage litigation
- Special experience in implantable medical device litigation (breast implants,
chin implants, malar implants, tissue expanders, vaginal slings, mesh abdominal implants, and others).
His expertise in silicone chemistry and materials
properties, device manufacturing procedures, quality control, GMP and many
other elements of implantable medical device litigation combines his extensive knowledge of silicone-based polymers with his analysis of several hundred thousand pages of manufacturing and inspection documents.
- Additional experience as a defense expert in personal injury litigation
(e.g. fiber-reinforced silicone steam hose explosion, sleep clinic fire)
- Strong scientific and technical background and recognition,
with many publications, patents, copyrights and an international award for one of
his scientific discoveries. Dr. Zeigler is also an author of three books: the Construction Vibration Damage Guide for Homeowners, the Construction Vibration Damage Guide Professional Edition and Silicon-Based
Polymer Science - a Comprehensive Resource.
Capabilities
- Scientific Advice and Consulting
- Dr. Zeigler's expert knowledge of vibration effects science, silicon-based (and other) polymers,
as well as organic chemistry, combined with his extensive litigation experience, can help you understand
the technical issues surrounding a given product or device. Experience in
litigation settings has shown that juries appreciate and respond to
attorneys and witnesses who fully understand, and can explain understandably, their cases from a scientific
viewpoint.
- Document Analysis
- Company documents and their real meaning in proper context constitute
much of the subject
matter of most technical and product litigations. We can help you, just as we have in literally thousands of other litigation cases, understand the full import
of company documents from a scientific/technical standpoint, identify issues
that the documents might raise and help you deal with "bad" documents.
- Analysis of Scientific Data
 In both litigation and non-litigation settings, the real meaning of scientific data, especially when there is a large volume of it to understand,
can be hard to determine. Dr. Zeigler can analyze data sets carefully and without bias to ferret out the real meaning of complex or extensive data. He will arrive at conclusions which are defensible scientifically and
understandable to those who must make decisions about them.- Deposition and Trial Preparation
-
 Claimed "scientific expert" testimony, even when scientifically invalid,
can be tremendously damaging at trial or even in settlement negotiations.
Dr. Zeigler has helped attorneys literally hundreds of times understand
expert testimony, find scientific weaknesses in it, develop responses to it,
and devise general lines of questioning to limit or attack opposing
testimony. His scientific studies have helped to eliminate or limit issues
and opposing witnesses from trial testimony numerous times. The attorney will formulate his own strategy, but, with our help,
he will do so from strength and knowledge.
-
 Product Examination and
Failure Analysis
- Dr. Zeigler has full capability to perform non-destructive analysis of
used or failed products to determine the cause of any failure and help
pinpoint issues that might be raised by opposing counsel during trial or
settlement negotiations. Examinations can be documented photographically, by
video, by written report, by oral report or any combination thereof.
- Exhibit Preparation
 Unlike most expert witnesses, Dr. Zeigler has prepared
virtually all the many illustrative exhibits and computer animations he has used at trial and in Daubert/Frye
hearings. Thus, there are no damaging answers to questions like "Did the
attorneys prepare this for you?". Since he prepares exhibits in
active consultation with client attorneys, you can rely on his exhibits
to be scientifically valid and understandable for the average jury. - Expert Testimony
- Dr. Zeigler has given sworn testimony in state and Federal courts, at trial and in Daubert/Frye hearings to limit testimony of opposing
experts, over 15 times. His testimony has typically been a mix of teaching
of materials principles, properties and chemistry, physic of vibration energy, interpretation of
documents and offering of opinions, based on generally accepted scientific principles. Indeed, his positions have been
supported several times by unbiased panels of scientists tasked to examine
scientific data on breast implants. His testimony has been effective. A
judge in a Federal bench trial referred to Dr. Zeigler as "a gifted expert
witness" in her decision. The long-time court bailiff in a state district
court trial referred to Dr. Zeigler in post-trial interviews as "a natural
teacher."
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Making Science Understandable
-
Dr. Zeigler's long experience in sharing forefront science with lay
juries can help in preparing testimony. For example, his
Construction Vibration Damage Guide for Homeowners explains the science of vibration damage in over 120 pages of free
information, yet has a Flesch-Kincaid readability score of 45 and grade
level of 12. Thus, anyone with the equivalent of a high school education can
read and understand a complex area of immense importance worldwide.
- Straight Talk and Integrity
- You can rely on getting honest
advice and scientifically sound testimony from Dr. Zeigler. If he can't
serve as an expert in your case, either because he isn't an expert in the
necessary area or because the scientific data doesn't support your case, he'll
tell you! If you need more information to build a stronger case, he'll help you get it. If he has a potential conflict-of-interest in helping you, he'll
make you aware of the possible conflict before he becomes an expert for you. If he agrees that he can help with your case within the
bounds of accepted science, he will be there, when and where you need
him.
- About Dr. Zeigler
-
  Dr.
John M. Zeigler has an earned Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of
Illinois, a highly-ranked chemistry graduate program, and is a member of the
Phi Beta Kappa Society. He is co-editor of an ACS Advances in Chemistry
volume on silicon-based polymers and has been a long-time member of the Editorial
Advisory Board of the Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers.
He is also the co-recipient of an IR-100 award for the development of
polysilane self-developing photoresists. He is the inventor or co-inventor
on over 30 U.S. and foreign patents and an author of three books (see one at right). Over a period of more than 14 years, Dr. Zeigler has developed
considerable scientific and litigation expertise in construction vibration
damage, arising in part from extensive damage done to his home during a road
reconstruction project. Some of the lessons learned, plus much more, can be found in his free
Construction Vibration Damage Guide for Homeowners. -
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Dr. Zeigler has also worked in vibration damage research, silicon-based polymers silicones (his book shown at right), conductive
polymers, receiving several patents in that area, superacid catalysis, polymer
photodegradation, and organic chemistry research. A curriculum vitae, listing publications, invited presentations, patents, testimony and other
relevant materials is available. He has been involved in litigation support work for 30 years, in addition to scientific consulting and other activities.
- See if We Can Help You!
- If you're interested in exploring whether we can help in your
case, contact us now. Initial consultations are free and confidential,
without obligation. You can reach us at
drzeigler@silchemy.com or call us at the
contact numbers on the home page.
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