In Episode 31 of the Expert Witness Playbook, Host Chris Woodruff is joined by Ed Labossi, President of AMP Aviation Consulting. Ed is an A&P mechanic with Inspection Authorization and an FAA Designated Airworthiness Representative (DAR), and has been awarded the FAA’s Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award. Ed ran his own aircraft maintenance company for 54 years, 16 of which were spent with Eastern Airlines at the same time, and is now an expert witness in aviation accidents and incidents. The conversation covers how attorneys and experts can work together more effectively, how Ed goes about preparing for an opinion and why it’s important to know your own limits in order to protect your own credibility.
Ed’s advice to attorneys is very straightforward. Get your experts on board on the day you take the case rather than weeks before the statute of limitations expires (particularly in the current climate where NTSB final reports can take well over 2 years). You need to check in with your experts on cases that are going to take years. You need to give them a defined scope and a defined budget at the outset and treat them as partners that can help you with your deposition strategy rather than just people to go and look at the bent metal.
For the expert, the message is to stay in your lane. Having spent decades taking engines apart, Ed still sends the critical teardowns to the overhauls, and he’ll send metal to the lab. He’ll also tell you why no real expert will form an opinion on a preliminary report and will share the deposition, which concluded with him telling the widow that her husband shouldn’t have flown that day.
Connect with Ed Libassi:
Website: http://www.apaviationconsulting.com/
Email: ed@apaviationconsulting.com
Connect with Chris:
Website: https://woodruff.dev/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswoodruff
Email: chris@woodruff.dev
