The FEWA e-newsletter is distributed twice a month -- that’s 24 opportunities for you to contribute an article, news item or event notice for our newsletter! We are always interested to hear about your experiences as an expert witness and legal consultant, whether you are just starting out your career or are a seasoned expert. The Forensic Expert Witness is the perfect place to write an op-ed style article about it to share your insights with other experts, and gain visibility for your FEWA profile and expertise.

Submit your community editorial to the FEWA National Staff by email at info@forensic.org. Happy writing!

Log in to your account on the FEWA website to submit your 2021 membership dues, update your Find an Expert directory listing information, or purchase new listing categories. You may also want to consider updating your profile picture or purchasing an Enhanced Listing ($100). The deadline to renew is December 31, 2020, but don’t delay. 

Thank you for your continued membership and support and we look forward to serving you in the year to come. For renewal questions, contact FEWA at info@forensic.org or by calling 312-981-6780 (weekdays, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, Central Time).

FEWA member, Jason Frankovitz, is a software engineering expert with over 30 years of experience. He has consulted on more than seventy lawsuits and technical due diligence evaluations and has testified under oath over twenty times in the United States and Canada. He has worked for plaintiffs and defendants in federal and state cases involving infringement of software patents, copyright infringement, and more. Read more about Jason below. 

COVID-19 has inevitably caused disruption to legal proceedings but the need to push ahead with cases has led to new ways of working and accelerated the adoption of available technology. While certain hearings have taken place by telephone for some time now, the pandemic has resulted in the parties participating in virtual court proceedings (particularly those involving witness and expert evidence) using video technology, such as Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business and Cloud Video Platform.

2020 was my third year writing this legal technology column for the <i>ABA Journal<i>. When I put pen to paper—so to speak—to write my first column of the year back in January, I had no inkling of the upheaval and disruption that would soon befall our country and the world.

A few notes of guidance many clinicians may find helpful. I have collected these insights over time on the basis of legal counsel as well as on my own personal experience supervising mental health professionals as they provided legal testimony. Ultimately, these nine tips constitute my best advice for psychotherapists providing court testimony.

With COVID-19 infections filling up more and more hospital beds in West Virginia and the rest of the country, a federal criminal trial scheduled to begin next week has been postponed to March by motion of the court.

Our lived experience, by and large, is now happening with a screen in front of us. As a global society bound by similar tribulations and technologies, we are now getting married, celebrating birthdays and conducting business with the assistance of a device that never seems to leave our peripheral. This is clearly not normal, and the potential long-term effects of our digitally globalized planet have yet to be fully explored.