In response to one of our recent emails to Expert News readers, we received an email saying, “I thought experts are not supposed to advertise, even through websites.”
I think you might find our dialogue of interest. I have edited the communication for length and confidentiality.My emailed reply was:

XXX, I don’t know where such an idea could have come from. I’ve only heard it from a couple of defense attorneys who of course don’t want experts making themselves available for plaintiff lawyers as well as for defense (defense – including insurance – attorneys have no trouble finding experts; plaintiff attorneys have more difficulty, thus look for experts’ advertising, as well as in other ways). Doctors and lawyers advertise; churches advertise; and so does every other product and service we use — advertising is a fact of life.

What experts need to be aware of is that their advertising, including their website, and their written articles, spoken presentations, and all other expression and utterances are available for scrutiny and potential criticism, so all of it needs to be professional and even conservative. An example of this caution would be to state on your website your areas of expertise and the services you perform for attorneys and the Court but not to state that you can help one side win or make other promises that bring your objectivity into question.

I hope this is helpful to you.Rosalie

To read additional responses and the complete article, please go here.

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The Vilas County district attorney plans to recruit volunteers for a second round of controversial tests designed to prove that a woman was drowned by her husband in a toilet – and didn’t commit suicide as he claims.

The experiments involve positioning women the size of the late Genell Plude of Land O’ Lakes at a toilet to determine whether the version of events told by her husband, Douglas Plude, is plausible.

Defense lawyers say it’s junk science.

Plude, 42, was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide in 2002. But the Wisconsin Supreme Court threw out the conviction last year after learning that an expert witness who conducted the first round of toilet tests exaggerated his credentials. Plude has been released from prison pending the second trial, which is expected to begin in October.

Prosecutors contend Plude murdered his 28-year-old wife because she was about to leave him. They say he poisoned her with a migraine drug and pushed her face into the toilet to drown her while she vomited.

Plude says his wife was depressed, committed suicide by taking the pills on her own and then drowned. He claims he found his wife slumped over the vomit-filled toilet and tried to perform CPR to keep her alive.

Prosecutors called on expert witness Saami Shaibani to shoot down Plude’s story at the first trial.

Shaibani said that, based on his tests involving volunteers he positioned at a toilet, Plude had to be lying about the positions he claimed to have found his wife in. Genell Plude also could not have inhaled toilet water on her own and someone must have forced her head into the water, he testified.

Defense lawyers from across the country have derided the tests and call them an example of unfair expert testimony. One of them, North Carolina lawyer David Rudolf, who clashed with Shaibani in another case, laughed about the tests in an interview last year.

“He had women sticking their heads in toilets!” he said. “That’s just not science. How do you peer review that? How do you test his conclusions?”

The state high court ordered a new trial for Plude after discovering Shaibani lied about being a clinical associate professor at Temple University who taught physicians and surgeons there about injuries. He had no relationship with Temple; years earlier he had a “loose courtesy affiliation” that gave him parking privileges but little else.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice is considering whether to charge Shaibani with perjury.

Unfazed by the controversy, Vilas County District Attorney Al Moustakis has hired Christopher Damm of the Milwaukee School of Engineering to do a second round of tests. Judge Neal Nielsen III last month granted his request to allow the testing of the toilet and a floor display of the bathroom in the court’s custody.

“The testing is likely to be the same type of testing that Shaibani did,” Moustakis said. Prosecutors routinely re-create crime scenes to prove their theories of crimes and hire accident reconstruction experts to analyze what might have caused someone’s death, said Gerald Mowris, former president of the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

“It’s really a question of, is the testing done properly, is it done according to scientifically accepted standards and is it by someone who is a qualified expert?” he said. “There are people who hold themselves out as experts who aren’t experts. That’s a major issue.

“He added: “The type of test you’re describing – whether someone could drown in a toilet or would need help – I’m not sure the type of expert who would be able to testify about that. I don’t know what the purported qualifications of the new expert is. The old one was essentially a charlatan.

“Damm, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, said he is a consultant in accident reconstruction and has testified in civil cases but this would be his first criminal case.

He said he was still reviewing testimony from the first trial and hadn’t yet designed the tests, which are expected to take place in June, but agreed they would be similar to Shaibani’s.

As for claims that it’s junk science, he said: “I don’t think you can make blanket statements like that. It would take an understanding of why the tests are being done and the methods that were used.

“Moustakis noted Shaibani’s conclusions were in line with some of the other evidence, including bruising Genell Plude had on her neck.

Other medical testimony was inconclusive on the cause of death.

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The SEO process is one of the most important aspects of your expert witness website. After all, if no one can find you, then what’s the point of having a website? Look at SEO as a recipe for your favorite pie. If you leave out an ingredient, then the pie may not turn out right. Add too much and it may “burn”. Align all the stars and it’s perfection! In this case, perfection is a high “organic” or natural (unpaid) placement in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

Since this is a multipart process, I will simply focus on one ingredient for this issue. Look forward to additional tips in coming issues.

PART 1…KEYWORDS

Choose your keywords carefully:

• Put yourself in the searchers shoes. If I am “ABC Expert Witness Services”, I can’t rely on the fact that someone is going to search for my company name exactly. That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t include it in your keywords though. I would, however, consider a broader search like “forensic expert witness”. This is the way you want to think when choosing your keywords.

• Use online tools to help you generate related keywords. Some really great tools exist online that can guide you in the right direction. One of the best is located at http://adwords.google.com. Click on “Get Keyword Ideas” and follow the instructions. Use a phrase (2-4 words) that best describes your services to help narrow down and target the keywords for your site. For example, you would get much more accurate results with a keyword generator by putting in “forensic expert witness” as opposed to just “expert” or “witness”.

Other online keyword tools include:
o http://inventory.overture.com
o http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
o http://www.nichebotclassic.com/

• Evaluate the results of the keywords generated. In Google’s keyword generator, they give you the option of seeing search term popularity, volume and volume trends. If you are considering buying advertising, they even show the relative competition for a keyword. The higher the competition, the more expensive the keyword or phrase will be to purchase.

So pick your keywords carefully, this is one of the most important ingredients in the SEO pie.

Remember to:
a) Put yourself in the searchers shoes…think like a searcher.
b) Use online keyword generating tools
c) Evaluate keyword analytics

The next piece of the SEO “pie” we will explore are “Title Tag Best Practices” and how to create the most effective page titles to increase your organic search rankings.

EWN

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