printBiomedical and Forensic Engineering Services - Expert Witness
Laughlin Engineering Firm, LLC
840 Threadneedle St.Suite 185
Houston, Texas 77079
USA
Contact: Mr. John Laughlin
Tel: (281) 741-9226, Fax: (281) 605-1996
Website: www.laughlinfirm.com Email: Send an emailExpert Witness - Forensic Expert - Speaker Bureau
Laughlin Engineering Firm, LLC provides forensic engineering services including accident reconstruction, injury biomechanics, human factors, failure analysis, and medical device engineering. Mr. Laughlin has reconstructed accidents involving cars, pedestrians, buses, trains, amusement park rides and commercial vehicles. Mr. Laughlin can help determine how injuries relate to a defect in product liability cases. Mr. Laughlin can also assist in cases involving slips, trips and other human interactions within an environment. Mr. Laughlin is also an accomplished medical device engineer.
Services
Laughlin Engineering Firm, LLC provides the following services:
Biomedical/Biomechanical Analysis
Vehicle Occupant Dynamics - how the occupants behaved within a moving compartment
Injury Potential/Causation
Vehicle Accidents - injury consistency with claim/cause of injury
Railroad Accidents - injuries caused or claimed as a result of an accident
Railroad Equipment - injuries caused or claimed as a result of equipment usage
Amusement Rides - injuries sustained or claimed while on a ride
Medical Equipment - hospital equipment damage evaluation and chiropractic equipment
Sports Equipment - injuries sustained or claimed while using equipment
Repetitive Strain Injuries
Injuries caused by machinery usage
Seatbelt/Airbag Interaction
Driver Determination - who was driving the vehicle?
Human Factors Engineering
Visibility
Perception/Reaction
Ergonomics - physical interaction with the environment
Claim Consistency - could incident have occurred as reported?
Medical Device Failures - was injury due to failure of device?
Medical Device Litigation - was company forthright in it's claims? was informed consent adequate?
Hospital Equipment Failures - cause of failure - damage due to flood, fire, transit, etc.
Accident Reconstruction
Experience with cars, trucks, buses, trains, amusement park rides and heavy machinery.
Motor Vehicles
Impacts - vehicle to vehicle or vehicle into barrier (tree, guardrail, etc.)
Rollovers - with or without occupant ejection
Low Speed - minor damage and delta V analysis
Order of Impacts - sequence of events during accident scenario
Pedestrian Incidents
Industrial Incidents - accidents involving specialized machinery usage
Slips/Trips and Falls - reconstruction - coefficient of friction - consistency of statements
Amusement Park Rides - reconstruction - injury biomechanics
Photogrammetry - gleaning useful information from photographic evidence
Litigation Support Services
Laughlin Engineering Firm, LLC, provides expert witness services to plaintiff and defense attorneys. We will help you understand the technical aspects of your case. We have experience helping attorneys develop demonstrative aids to support the evidence during trial.
Areas of Expertise:
Profile
As a licensed professional mechanical and biomedical engineer, Mr. Laughlin is qualified to use injury based evidence from medical records, photographs or autopsy reports and combine it with the physical evidence from a failure analysis or an accident reconstruction to create a more complete description of an incident. Mr. Laughlin can help bridge the divide between physical evidence found at an incident scene and the injuries reported by medical personnel. Additionally, Mr. Laughlin’s knowledge of human factors engineering allows him to analyze incidents that occur in a wide range of environments. A few examples of which include airplane interiors, charter buses, industrial equipment, amusement park rides and trains.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Laughlin has worked in the area of orthopedic biomechanics, developing equipment related to the testing of implantable orthopedic medical devices, studying human kinematics, and testing the material properties of human tissue. Mr. Laughlin understands occupant dynamics/kinematics and can reconstruct an occupant’s motions during an accident. He is familiar with head injury causation, spinal biomechanics and the biomechanical properties of human tissue including muscle and bone.
Mr. Laughlin is also an accomplished medical device engineer and has experience in the field of neuroelectrical engineering, implantable drug pumps and orthopedic devices. As a clinical engineer, Mr. Laughlin worked in the field to advance the science of neuromodulation, or the application of electricity to a group of nerve fibers to reach a therapeutic result. He has worked closely with research and development departments to advance the design of tools and implantable devices used in the operating room and clinic. He has contributed to the content and design of study protocols used in clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of medical devices. He has trained surgeon investigators as well as clinical sales teams on the implantation of these devices. Mr. Laughlin is familiar with Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) and Pre-Market Approval (PMA) processes.
Mr. Laughlin is a seasoned professional who has testified over 65 times in trial and deposition. He has testified in 8 states and in Federal court. Laughlin Engineering Firm, LLC is dedicated to providing ethical analyses based upon sound engineering principles and physical evidence. We believe our clients need to know the facts surrounding an incident so they can make very important legal decisions. High standards and integrity allow us to provide defensible opinions, based upon physics and physical evidence, which our clients can trust and use with confidence.
Mr. Laughlin has experience designing, directing and producing quality demonstrative evidence for use in trials.
Licenses
Professional Engineer, mechanical engineering, registered in Texas
Legal Experience & Services
Mr. Laughlin has testified numerous times in both deposition and trial and has been qualified as an expert in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina and Washington.
Affiliations
Society of Automotive Engineers, Member
National Society of Professional Engineers, Engineering Professional Membership
Texas Society of Professional Engineers, Engineering Professional Membership
American Society for Quality, Division Member
Publications
Grecula, M.J., Morris, R.P., Laughlin, J.C., Buford, W.L., Jr., and Patterson, R.M., “Femoral Surface Strain in Intact Composite Femurs: A Custom Computer Analysis of the Photoelastic Coating Technique”, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, July 2000.
Laughlin, J.C., “Analysis Methods for Determining Occupant Dynamics in High Speed Automobile Collisions.” Sixteenth Annual Houston Conference on Biomedical Engineering Research, Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, 1996.
Maschino, S, Laughlin, J, “Long Term Follow-Up Study for Protocols E01, E02, E03 and E04 Treatment of Refractory Epilepsy Using Vagus Nerve Stimulation - A Study anaged For Compliance With Good Clinical Practice”, November, 1988 to December, 1986, Cyberonics, Inc., PMA Amendment for the FDA approval of the NeuroCybernetic Prosthesis.
Grecula, M.J., Laughlin, J.C., Morris, R.P., Buford, W.L., “Development of a Computer Analysis Technique For Strain Patterns On The Femoral Surface After Total Hip Arthroplasty Using the Photoelastic Method.” American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), Orthopaedic Transactions, 1997.
Laughlin, J.C., Grecula, M.J., Buford, W.L., Stark, T., Morris, R.P., "A Photoelastic Study Of Femoral Strain Distributions After Implantation With Various Cementless Hip Stem Designs." Mid-America Orthopaedic Association, Orthopaedic Transactions, 1997.
Laughlin, J.C., Grecula, M.J., Morris, R.P., “Development of a Computer Analysis Technique for Strain Patterns On The Femoral Surface After Total Hip Arthroplasty Using the Photoelastic Method.” Fourteenth Annual Houston Conference on Biomedical Engineering Research, Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, 1996.
Laughlin, John: A Wheelchair Triggered Door Opener for a Private Home, National Science Foundation 1993 Engineering Senior Design Projects to Aid the Disabled, North Dakota State University Press,
Education
Master of Engineering Bioengineering, 1995 Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
Emphasis in electrical engineering and biomechanics.
Bachelor of Science Bioengineering, 1993 Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
Emphasis in electrical engineering and pre-medicine.
Consulting Practice:
All States
More Information:
Accident Reconstruction, Neuroelectrical and Biomechanical Engineering Expert Witness
Biomedical Engineering Services, Expert Witness
Forensic Engineering Services, Litigation Support
Contact Laughlin Engineering Firm, LLC - Expert Witness
Medical Device Regulatory Services
