August 2010

MEA Forensic is pleased to welcome Winnie Cheung to our accounting team in the Richmond, BC office!  She is a recent graduate from Simon Fraser University with a major in business and a concentration in accounting. Winnie is also an accomplished figure skater.

July 2010

Jonathan Lawrence attends the Vancouver Island Adjuster’s Association’s 21st Annual Golf Tournament in Duncan.

Mark Bailey, Elvis Cepus and Heather Andrews attend the Canadian Insurance Claims Managers Association’s Golf Tournament in Surrey.

Dr. Joseph Walter from the University of Akron presents “The Tire as a Vehicle Component” and “Tire and Wheel Safety Issues” for MEA staff.

Vickie Norton presents the “Top Three Things a Commercial Airline Pilot Would Change to Improve Aviation Safety” at the American Association of Justice 2010 Annual Convention in Vancouver, Canada. Also attending are Julie O’Brien and Melinda Munroe from the Los Angeles office and Gunter Siegmund, Heather Andrews, Mark Bailey, Jonathan Lawrence and Andrea Ho from the Vancouver office.  
                 
Navid Nastar attends the Orange County Risk and Insurance Management Society meeting.  

Navid Nastar and Melinda Munroe attend the Orange County/Los Angeles Blue Goose meeting. 

Dennis Turriff and Mark Bailey are published in Claims Canada for their hot water heater failure article titled “An Oft Forgotten Risk”.

Craig Wilkinson and Mathieu King attend the 9th Annual Cardiac Kids Golf Tournament at Angus Glen Golf Club where MEA Forensic sponsors a hole.

MEA Forensic sponsors a hole, a survivor’s golf day & dinner and team photos for the 2010 Annual Charity Golf Challenge for the Brain Injury Association Sudbury & District (BIASD).

June 2010

MEA Forensic attends the Property Casualty Underwriters Club Annual Golf Tournament at the Hidden Lake Golf Club in Burlington Ontario.

Jonathan Lawrence attends ICBC Kingsway’s Blair Kolinsky Memorial Golf Tournament.

Mark Bailey and Heather Andrews represent MEA Forensic at the 8th Annual CIP Society Golf Tournament in Surrey. 

Gunter Siegmund and Mark Bailey present on injury biomechanics and product and property topics for the BC Society of Fellows luncheon seminar.

Gunter Siegmund and Heather Andrews attend the CBA Benevolent Society’s Battle of the Bands in Vancouver.

Elvis Cepus, Mark Bailey and Heather Andrews attend Harper Grey’s Aviation Reception.

Jonathan Lawrence attends the CBABC/VBA 14th Annual Golf Tournament at the University Golf Club.

Heather Andrews attends the Legal Marketing Association’s Summer Social in Yaletown.

Jonathan Lawrence attends the 4th Annual Vancouver Island Chapter CIP Society of BC’s Golf Tournament & Dinner in Victoria.

Gunter Siegmund and Duane MacInnis attend Murphy Battista’s Annual Fete at Cecil Green Park.

Dale Goudie judges the 73rd Annual National Truck Driving Championships.

Craig Wilkinson and Dennis Chimich present for the Canadian Defense Lawyer’s coast to coast audioconference called “Using Forensics to Make Sense of Pedestrian & Bicycle Accidents”.
      
Dennis Chimich gives an interview for Calgary’s XL103FM radio regarding motorcycle helmet safety.

Heather Andrews becomes a member of the Legal Marketing Association’s Programming Committee.

John Gardiner and Navid Nastar present at June’s Orange County Risk and Insurance Management Society meeting with Tom Phillips, Risk Manager for the County of Orange.  Topics include slips, trips and falls and the risk of public hazards.

Vickie Norton and Melinda Munroe attend the Consumer Attorneys of California Women’s Caucus networking reception in Newport Beach, CA.  

Navid Nastar attends the Loss Executives Association Conference held in Newport, Rhode Island.

John Gardiner, Navid Nastar and Melinda Munroe attend the Orange County Bar Association Summer Mixer in Irvine, CA.

Julie O’Brien, Navid Nastar and Dr. John Gardiner attend the America's Claims Event Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

John Gardiner and Melinda Munroe participate in the annual San Diego Defense Lawyers Golf Tournament at The Crossings golf course in Carlsbad, CA. The golf tournament benefits the 2010 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Navid Nastar attends the California Association of Independent Adjustors educational Seminar for the Evaluation of Earthquake Damage held in Pomona, CA.

Ryan Fix and Melinda Munroe participate in the Orange County Bar Association Charitable Fund Judge Kenneth Lae Golf Tournament held at the Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Beach, CA.

Dennis Turriff, Pamela D’Addario and Lucy Zhao sponsor the photo-booth at OIAA 2010 Annual Golf Tournament at Deer Creek Golf Club.

Elizabeth Hassan and Craig Wilkinson perform live helmet drop tests for Grade 3 students at the Community Safety Village in York Region as part of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA) Bike Helmets on Kids campaign.

Craig Wilkinson and Dennis Chimich present “Using Forensics to Make Sense of Pedestrian and Bicycle Accidents” to over 250 lawyers across Canada for the Canadian Defence Lawyers.

Ismail El Maach, Pamela D’Addario and Elizabeth Hassan attend the Ontario Brain Injury Association Annual Mix n’ Mingle.

Craig Wilkinson, Mathieu King and Brian Mac Giolla Ri host the photo-booth at the Simcoe County Law Association’s Annual 2010 Golf Tournament at Tangle Creek Golf Club.

Mathieu King, Craig Wilkinson, Dennis Turriff and Brian Mac Giolla Ri host two photo-booths at the Canadian Insurance Claims Managers Association 2010 Annual Golf Tournament at Cardinal Golf Club, in support of Camp Ochigeas.

Dennis Turriff presents “Laser Flash Thermal Diffusivity Measurement of Automotive Aluminum Brazing Sheet Joints” at the 22nd Canadian Materials Science Conference at the University of Waterloo.

Elizabeth Hassan, Dennis Turriff, and Mathieu King attend the Canadian Defence Lawyers Annual General Meeting.

May 2010

MEA Forensic exhibits at the West Coast Casualty Conference at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim CA. Navid Nastar and Melinda Munroe attend the conference.

Check Kam attends the Orange County Paralegal Association Vendor Mixer.

Navid Nastar presents “An Analysis of Low-Cycle Fatigue in Steel Moment Frames” during the American Society of Civil Engineers Structures Congress in Florida.

Jim Bertoch attends the Institute of Police Technology and Management course in Oregon.

Check Kam and Melinda Munroe attend the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego Golf Tournament at the Riverwalk Golf Course..

Melinda Munroe attends the monthly Orange County Risk and Insurance Management Society meeting.

MEA Forensic sponsors the Orange County Paralegal Association monthly meeting, with Ryan Fix and Courtney Bridge attending.

Melinda Munroe attends the Lex Romana Monthly Dinner at Antonello’s Ristorante.

John Gardiner, Navid Nastar and Melinda Munroe attend the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association monthly meeting presented by Hon. Randall J. Sherman and Linda C. Martinez, Esq. on the topic of Minor’s Compromises.   

Duane MacInnis interviews for CBC Radio One’s “On The Coast” with Stephen Quinn to discuss motorcycle safety.

Elvis Cepus and Courtney Drury attend the First Annual Shoot for the Cure Golf Classic in Coquitlam.  This event put on by the BC Insurance Industry raised awareness for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada.

Dennis Chimich presents at the Canadian Defence Lawyer’s Boot Camp II on Injury Biomechanics and how a biomechanical engineer can help one’s case.

Mark Bailey and Heather Andrews attend the Commonwealth Insurance Company’s 45th Anniversary Celebration.

Duane MacInnis is featured on AM650’s Cruise Control motorcycle radio show with Rob Collins.

Jonathan Lawrence speaks at the Crime Stoppers Training Conference in Nanaimo, BC.

Jonathan Lawrence attends ICBC Abbotsford’s Charity Golf Tournament.

Heather Andrews attends the BC Paralegal Association’s Spring Event in beautiful Gastown Vancouver.

Dennis Chimich and Heather Andrews attend the Trial Lawyer’s Association of BC’s (TLABC) Jury Trials Conference.

Duane MacInnis interviews with Victoria’s CFAX 1070 with Dave Dickson for Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month.

Elvis Cepus attends the Insurance Brokers Association of BC’s Jack Hamilton Memorial Golf Classic.

MEA Forensic held its Third Annual AR Summit.  Twenty engineers from the three MEA offices gathered for an in-house technical conference at the Richmond Head Office.  The engineers participated in presentations, demonstrations and round-table discussions of the latest accident reconstruction data and techniques. Another successful and informative AR Summit at MEA!

Brad Heinrichs taught a PC-Crash course in Langley for several RCMP Collision Reconstructionists from all over BC.
  
MEA Forensic sponsors the student awards for Best Podium Presentations at the 6th Annual Northwest Biomechanics Symposium held at the University of Washington in Seattle.

MEA Forensic staff attend the OIAA 2010 Out of Town Conference hosted by the Hamilton Chapter at the Hamilton Convention Centre.

Gunter Siegmund presents at the OIAA 2010 Out of Town Conference hosted by the Hamilton Chapter on the Biomechanics of Slips and Falls in Hamilton, ON.

MEA Forensic staff attend the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association Spring Conference at the Westin Prince Hotel in Toronto.

MEA Forensic attends the Property Casualty Underwriters Club Annual Golf Tournament at the Hidden Lake Golf Club in Burlington Ontario.

April 2010

John Gardiner, Check Kam and Melinda Munroe attend the Orange County Bar Association Spring Mixer at McCormick & Schmick’s in Irvine, CA.

MEA Forensic participates in the Combined Claims Conference annual golf tournament in Long Beach, CA. Navid Nastar, John Gardiner, Check Kam and Melinda Munroe represented MEA at the tournament.

MEA Forensic attends the Combined Claims Conference held at the Long Beach Convention Center from April 6th – 7th. Jim Bertoch, Navid Nastar,
Ryan Fix, Check Kam and Ross Hunter attend the conference.

Navid Nastar and Julie O’Brien attend an Orange County Risk Insurance Management Society meeting on Earthquake Updates.

Mark Bailey, Dennis Turriff, Navid Nastar and Melinda Munroe attend  the Defense Research Institute Conference on Product Liability in Las Vegas, NV.

MEA Forensic participates in the Orange County branch of the American Board of Trial Advocates golf tournament. John Gardiner golfs in the tournament, while Navid Nastar, Julie O’Brien, Check Kam and Melinda Munroe attend the event.

Navid Nastar and Melinda Munroe participate in the Blue Goose Insurance Group dinner meeting in Fullerton, CA. The guest speaker was Chris Roza - Senior General Adjuster of FM Global who spoke on the topic of "Difficulties in working in a large scale CAT environment."

Steve Yamashita attends the 2010 Wildland Fire Conference in Reno, NV.

Brad Heinrichs leads the PC-Crash Workshop. This was a well attended, informative week of training in Los Angeles for a wide variety of clients.

Gunter Siegmund, Alyssa DeMarco and Heather Andrews attend TLABC's Intersection of Law & Medicine.

Duane MacInnis and Alyssa DeMarco interview for News1130 regarding the safety of motorcyclists getting back on to the road after the winter break.

Jonathan Lawrence, Ryan Fix, Check Kam and Dale Goudie attend the 2010 Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit Michigan.  Ryan Fix and Jonathan Lawrence present their paper titled “Front and Rear Car Crush Coefficients for Energy Calculations” (SAE paper number 2010-01-0069).

Dennis Chimich and Alyssa DeMarco publish an article in The Verdict (Issue 123) called “Injury Biomechanics in Sports & Recreation Cases”.

Andrea Ho receives her PEng designation! Congratulations!

Andrea Ho joins the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST).

Dale Goudie attends a 3-day SAE seminar in Detroit titled "Fundamentals of Heavy Truck Dynamics".

Shannon Kroeker joins MEA’s Richmond office! After attending Queens University and the University of British Columbia, in 2010, she completed her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington.  Her dissertation focused on the tensile mechanics of the neck and how these forces relate to spinal cord injury.   A valuable addition to MEA’s Injury Biomechanical Group, she will first be working within our diverse Transportation Group.
   
Alyssa DeMarco and Heather Andrews attend the Legal Marketing Association’s Corporate Counsel Panel Event.

Kurt Ising is interviewed by Hal Gardiner of XL 103FM in Calgary regarding motorcycle safety and the use of helmets.

MEA Forensic attends and sponsors the Canadian Defense Lawyers Law Clerks Annual Program on April 23rd at the Ontario Bar Association.

March 2010

Jonathan Lawrence and Heather Andrews attend the Trial Lawyer's Association of Bristish Columbia (TLABC) conference on The New BC Supreme Court Rules.

Duane MacInnis announces his official return to the BC office after an exciting few years launching our Toronto office! Welcome home Duane!

MEA Forensic welcomes Ashley Brodkin to the Los Angeles Office! Ashley will be working as a Project Coordinator for the Transportation group, as well as taking on the task of office librarian.  Ashley is originally from Southern California, but has spent time away from home working in Puerto Rico. Ashley attended the University of Washington, where she majored in English Literature.  Welcome Ashley!

MEA Forensic exhibits at the 49th Annual Seminar for the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel (ASCDC). Dave King, John Gardiner, Gunter Siegmund, Vickie Norton, Navid Nastar, Check Kam and Melinda Munroe attend the conference held in downtown Los Angeles.

Dave King presents at the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association (OCTLA) on “Experts: Who Do You Need & How Do You Examine Them?” MEA Forensic staff members attend, including Jim Bertoch, Navid Nastar, Ryan Fix, Check Kam and Melinda Munroe.

Melinda Munroe attends the monthly meeting for the Orange County Risk and Insurance Management Society (OCRIMS) in Orange, CA.

Julie O’Brien attends a dinner event at PJ’s Abbey in Orange for the Orange County Risk and Insurance Management Society(OCRIMS).

Julie O’Brien and Melinda Munroe attends a Legal Marketing Association (LMA) presentation on Digital Technology in Irvine, CA.

MEA Forensic attends and sponsors the 3rd Annual Personal Injury Bar Plaintiff vs. Defence Charity Hockey Tournament in support for Shoot for a Cure to raise funds and awareness for spinal cord research.

MEA is pleased to announce that Heather Andrews has been promoted to lead MEA’s Business Development department in our Vancouver office. Heather has been a key part of our Transportation group for the last four years.  She is excited about the opportunity to work more closely with our valued clients and industry leaders in the Vancouver market.

MEA’s Vancouver office welcomes Nita Dun to the position of Project Coordinator. Nita has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Victoria in Geography, and has spent the last 5 years living in New Zealand. We are very excited to have her join our busy and diverse Transportation group. Welcome Nita!   

MEA research quantifying the friction used by young, middle aged and elderly individuals while entering and exiting a bathtub/shower enclosure is published in Gait & Posture. This research was conducted in collaboration with Jim Flynn of J2 Engineering. Abstract http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20188564.

Gunter Siegmund presents research findings related to the friction used by young, middle aged and elderly individuals while entering and exiting a bathtub/shower enclosure. The presentation was part of the 62nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Seattle, WA, February 22-27, 2010.

Navid Nastar and Melinda Munroe attend monthly meeting of the Orange County Risk and Insurance Management Society (OCRIMS).

Dave King and Check Kam attend the Defense Research Institute (DRI) Trucking Law Seminar in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Navid Nastar and Melinda Munroe attend the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) 2009 Year in Review for Construction Law.

Check Kam and Melinda Munroe participate in a Mock Trial for the University of California, San Diego School of Law National Trial Competition.

Andrea Eidukonis and Melinda Munroe attend a meeting for the Forensic Expert Witness Association. The presentation was the Role of Paralegals to the Expert Witness given by Cynthia Mascio of Rutan & Tucker, LLP.

MEA Forensic participates in the EngiTECH Career Fair at University of California, Irvine. John Gardiner, Julie O’Brien, Navid Nastar, Ross Hunter, and Melinda Munroe talked with undergrad and postgraduate engineer students.

Melinda Munroe attend the Los Angeles branch Legal Marketing Association (LMA) lunch seminar on “Techniques for Driving Innovation at Law Firms”.

Vickie Norton presents on “Captain/Dispatcher Joint Authority under Part 121” at the Lawyer Pilots Bar Association (LPBA) in Florida.

Navid Nastar presents on Earthquake Structural Damage for the Blue Goose Insurance Group in Los Angeles.

Melinda Munroe attends the Orange County Bar Association (OCBA) Insurance Law Section Meeting.

MEA Forensic attends the OIAA 2010 Professional Development & Claims Conference on February 3rd at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Craig Wilkinson presents at the OIAA 2010 Professional Development & Claims Conference on Vehicle Collisions with Pedestrians/Bicycles on February 3rd at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

MEA Forensic attends the Canadian Defense Lawyers’ 6th Annual Insurance Symposium on February 11th and 12th at the Ontario Bar Association in Toronto.

January 2010

Dennis Turriff PhD PEng joins MEA’s Toronto office as a Senior Engineer in the Product and Property Groups. He has expertise in metallurgy and materials science with an emphasis on microstructural, mechanical, and thermal characterization of numerous metallic and non-metallic materials. This includes phase transformations during materials processing including welding, brazing, soldering, heat treating, plating, forming as well as failure analysis.  Prior to joining MEA, Dennis was an instructor within the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department at the University of Waterloo.

Research into the validity of tribometer measurements for assessing the potential of slipping is published in the Journal of Forensic Science. This research was done in collaboration with Dr. Chris Powers of the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Research Laboratory at the University of Southern California and Jim Flynn of J2 Engineering.

James Bowler, Craig Wilkinson and Ryan Fix attend the CDR Users Summit in Houston (Jan 2010). 

 

November 2009

MEA Forensic sponsors the Canadian Defense Lawyers’ Law Clerks Ontario Rules Audioconference on November 16th, 2009.

Navid Nastar attends the 5th American Society of Civil Engineers Forensic Engineering Congress in Washington, DC on November 11-14, 2009.

Kurt Ising attends the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America’s Annual Conference in Seattle, WA, on November 16 and 17. Mr. Ising will present his paper. “Threshold Visibility Levels Required for Nighttime Pedestrian Detection in a Modified Adrian/CIE Visibility Model”.

Ismail El Maach, Pamela D’Addario and Lucy Zhao attend the Women’s Law Association of Ontario’s 90th Anniversary Gala at the Royal York Hotel on November 26th, 2009.

Navid Nastar PhD, PE joins MEA California’s office as a Senior Civil/Structural Engineer in the Product and Property Groups. He specializes in the field of earthquake engineering and earthquake damage assessment. Navid is also an adjunct faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Southern California.

MEA Forensic sponsors a hole at the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association's Annual Bench & Bar Columbus Day Golf Tournament held at the El Niguel Country Club.

John Gardiner, Ryan Fix, Check Kam, Julie O’Brien, Lucy Zhao, and Melinda Munroe attend the 1st OCTLA-ABOTLA Conference held at University California of Irvine. The topic of the conference was Courtroom Solutions for Today’s Lawyers with keynote speakers Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of UCI School of Law and Kenneth Starr, Dean of Pepperdine University School of Law.

Melinda Munroe attends Insurance Group Blue Goose International meeting for the Los Angeles/Orange County area.

John Gardiner, Navid Nastar, and Melinda Munroe attend the CAALA-ASCDC joint reception “Reaching across the Aisle” with keynote speaker Judge “Tim” McCoy of the Los Angeles Superior Court.

October 2009

Kurt Ising attends the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's 53rd Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, and presents his research, “The Distribution of Visibility Levels at Target Detection in a Modified Adrian/CIE Visibility Model”.

James Bowler attends the Collision Safety Institute’s Crash Data Retrieval Course for Advanced Technicians in Seattle on October 29-31st.

Ken Iliadis and Lucy Zhao attend the Canadian Defense Lawyers’ 2nd Annual Accident Benefits Conference in Toronto on October 8th, 2009 at the Ontario Bar Association.

MEA Forensic attends the Toronto National Career Event on October 14th at the Hilton Toronto.

MEA Forensic attends the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia's “Perfecting Your Trial Story” and “BC Supreme Court Rules” workshops in Vancouver, BC, on October 30-31st.

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MEA Forensic Engineers & Scientists receives the #8 ranking for the Best Places to Work Small Business Category in Orange County, California by the Orange County Business Journal (OCBJ). The list was compiled for OCBJ by Harrisburg, Pennsylvania based Best Companies Group, an independent work-place researcher.

Dave King, John Gardiner, Vicki Norton, Chuck Gang, Julie O’Brien and Melinda Munroe attend the annual Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles’s 27th Annual Las Vegas Convention on September 3rd to 6th.  Dr. John Gardiner speaks on the “Biomechanics of Auto Accidents: Using Advanced Testing to Prove Injuries”

Kurt Ising teaches the Human Factors & Traffic Safety course to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCMP Level III Collision Analysts at the RCMP Pacific Region Training Center, Chilliwack, BC.

Elizabeth Hassan MESc PEng joins MEA’s Toronto office as a Project Engineer in the Transportation group.

Alyssa DeMarco and Nicholas Mang attend “The Best Defence” conference hosted by the Canadian Defence Lawyers on September 16th in Vancouver, BC.

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MEA is a sponsor and participant of ICBC Richmond’s Annual Golf Tournament at Mylora Golf Course. Jonathan Lawrence represents MEA Forensic in the August 29th tournament.

Andrea Ho and Mathieu King attend the iWitness close range photogrammetry training course held in Langley, BC

MEA Forensic hosts a 4 day PC Crash software course starting on the 25th of August, in Downtown Vancouver. August 25th -26th is an Essentials Workshop, and the 27th – 28th is an Expert Models Workshop.  Bradley Heinrichs spearheads the workshop as engineers and accident re-constructionists from both U.S. and Canada sign up for the program. Also in attendance are MEA Engineers Check Kam, Anthony Geach and Brian Mac Giolla Ri..

Ryan Fix participates in the California Association of Accident Reconstruction Specialist (CAARS)’s Motorcycle Crash testing from August 24th to August 27th at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County airport where participants in the study preformed 25 motorcycle into vehicle crash tests and 6 motorcycle slide tests.

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MEA is a sponsor and participant of the Canadian Insurance Claims Managers Association's 10th Anniversary Charity Golf Tournament. This year’s event takes place at the Northview Golf & Country Club, and all the proceeds raised will be given to the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice. Mark Bailey is MEA’s 2009 representative at the charity event.

MEA is a sponsor of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association Ultimate Lien seminar in Tustin. Speakers include Hon. James J. DiCesare, Mark Wilson of Klein & Wilson, and Michael Behr of Conferencing Advisors.

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MEA develops a technique for recovering Event Data Recorder (EDR) data from severely damaged cars.  A fire following an automobile accident badly damaged the EDR. MEA engineers were able to transplant a computer chip from the damaged recorder box into a new box.  The crash data, which had survived the fire, was successfully downloaded from the new box.  This new research offers a potential breakthrough for cases where traditional download methods do not work because of damage to the EDR.  

John Gardiner, Julie O'Brien and Check Kam attend the Orange County Trial Lawyers seminar on Preparing the Case to Settle Before, During & After Mediation.

MEA sponsors the photo booth at the Ontario Insurance Adjusters Association Open Annual Golf Tournament in Ajax, Ontario.

MEA sponsors the photo booth and attends the Canadian Insurance Claims Managers Association Annual Golf Tournament at Kleinburg Golf Club.

Nicholas Mang attends the 2009 Annual General Meeting by the Canadian Defence Lawyers in Vancouver, BC.

Dennis Chimich presents a telephone-seminar on the Injury Biomechanics of “Slip, Trip and Fall”, for the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia.

Nicholas Mang attends the 2009 LA Law by the Canadian Defence Lawyers in Vancouver, BC.

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MEA Forensic announces a new brand identity.  The new MEA Forensic logo incorporates icon, wordmark and tagline components in a red and black color scheme.  The three-point icon is a stylized glyph that draws its origins from the mathematical “therefore” symbol.

John Gardiner participates in the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego Annual Golf Outing.

Check Kam attends the Orange County Trial Lawyers seminar on What Lawyers Can Learn From Actors Persuasive Storytelling.

Chuck Gang, Check Kam, and Julie O’Brien attend the 2009 West Coast Casualty Conference in Anaheim, CA.

MEA attends the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association 2009 Spring Conference in Toronto, ON.

MEA attends the Canadian Association of Insurance Women Annual General Meeting and Convention hosted by the Toronto Insurance Woman’s Association in Toronto, ON.

MEA sponsors a hole at the Ledgeview Golf and Country Club for the 13th Annual ICBC Abbotsford Charity Golf Tournament. The proceeds from the event will help support programs and services of The Salvation Army.

Brian Mac Giolla Ri, joins the Transportation Group in the MEA Toronto office.

MEA Forensic’s 2nd Annual Collision Reconstruction Summit takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia. The in-house seminar brings together members from MEA’s Transportation Group in all three offices to discuss and exchange new technical knowledge and research developments in collision reconstruction.

MEA Forensic hosts members from the California Highway Patrol’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) program to an accident reconstruction training seminar at MEA’s Laguna Hills facility. Staged crash tests demonstrate various concepts related to vehicle and crash dynamics to our guests. An article of the day’s event is featured in the OC Register.

Craig Wilkinson presented at the Annual Law Clerks conference held by the Canadian Defence Lawyers in Toronto on “Asking the Right Questions: Getting the Most from Your Expert”.

Mark Bailey, Andrea Ho, Craig Wilkinson, Ken Iliadis and Pamela D’Addario attend the Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) 2009 World Congress in Detroit, Michigan. Mark Bailey presents MEA research on the “Mechanics of Wheel Separation” as Craig Wilkinson discusses “The Accuracy of 1997 to 2005 General Motors Event Data Recorders in NHTSA Crash Tests”.

MEA Forensic hosts 15 members of the Society of Automotive Engineers, British Columbia Chapter to a tour of our Vancouver office facilities. Led by Dale Goudie, Elvis Cepuš, Elizabeth Hassan, Jeff Nickel and James Bowler, the guests are given presentations on polymer identification using FTIR, an impact sled demonstration in our Biomechanics Lab, and a Crash Data Recorder (CDR) demonstration involving vehicle-to-barrier crash test.

Nicholas Mang and Alyssa DeMarco attend Boot Camp Vancouver hosted by the Canadian Defence Lawyers.

A review paper entitled “The anatomy and biomechanics of acute and chronic whiplash injury” is published in Traffic Injury Prevention. Gunter Siegmund co-authors this review with Beth Winkelstein of the University of Pennsylvania, Paul Ivancic of Yale University, Mats Svensson of Chalmers University of Technology, and Anita Vasavada of Washington State University.

MEA research demonstrating that collision jerk plays little or no role in the genesis of whiplash injuries is published in the Journal of Physiology. This research was conducted in collaboration with Jean-Sébastien Blouin of UBC’s School of Human Kinetics.

Gunter Siegmund is awarded a 5 year Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to pursue research into gender-related differences in neck biomechanics relevant to whiplash injury.

Mircea Oala-Florescu and Marcia Araujo celebrate their 10 year anniversaries at MEA Forensic.

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Captain Vickie R. Norton, BSME, ATP joins MEA's California office as a Mechanical Engineer in the Aviation Group. Vickie brings over 20 years of multi-disciplined aviation experience ranging from engineering design and airframe certification to Captain with a major US airline. She has held the prestigious FAA Designated Engineering Representative Certification as well as Certified Flight Instructor/Ground Instructor licenses and currently holds her Private Rotorcraft-Helicopter license. Her areas of specialization include Aircraft systems, failure analysis, FAA Operating rules and pilot training and human factors.

Nicholas Mang joins our Vancouver office as a Business Development Specialist. Nicholas comes to MEA after working extensively in China, as he represented and promoted the international interests for one of the largest private mining companies in China. Nicholas was also most recently acting as an Asia-Pacific Consultant to the British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, during the ministry’s trade mission and talks throughout the Pacific Rim

Craig Wilkinson presents a seminar on Injury Biomechanics at the Ontario Insurance Adjusters Association Hamilton Chapter Dinner Meeting on Wednesday January 14th.

Lucy Zhao attends the Toronto Insurance Women’s Association Dinner Meeting at the Toronto Board of Trade on Tuesday January 20th.

Gunter Siegmund and Ismail El Maach presents biomechanical training seminar to graduate students in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Western Ontario on Wednesday January 21st.

MEA research into differences in the dynamic response of females and males in rear-end impacts is published in Traffic Injury Prevention. This research was done in collaboration with Astrid Linder and Anna Carlsson of the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute and Mats Svensson of the Chalmers University of Technology.

Dennis Chimich presents a seminar on Injury Biomechanics and Concussion, this presentation inculded research relating NFL football injury data to assess concussion risk in a motor vehicle collision. This was in conjunction with an ICBC Focus on Concussion Seminar in Vancouver, BC.

Mark Bailey and Lucy Zhao attend the Career Transition Workshop for Automotive Engineers in Toronto presented by the Society of Automotive Engineers on Friday December 12th.

Dave King, Julie O'Brien and Chuck Gang attend the Orange County Trial Lawyers Annual Holiday Luncheon in Santa Ana, CA.

Craig Wilkinson, Ismail El Maach, Ken Iliadis, and Lucy Zhao attend the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association Fall Conference at the Westin Prince on November 30th – 31st.

Dennis Chimich and Kurt Ising present a program on Accident Reconstruction and the application of Injury Biomechanics to assess motor vehicle collisions at the MVA Experts Conference for the SFU Segal School of Business at the Law Courts Center in Vancouver, BC.

Gunter Siegmund, Dennis Chimich, John Gardiner, Ishmail El Maach and Check Kam attend the 52nd Annnual Stapp Car Crash Conference in San Antonio, TX. The Stapp Car Crash Conference is the premier forum for the presentation of research in impact biomechanics, human injury tolerance, and related fields that advance the knowledge of land-vehicle crash injury protection.

Gunter Siegmund presents research findings related to sensory pathways mediating the neck muscle response in rear-end impacts. 36th International Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research, San Antonio, TX, November 2, 2008.

MEA LA welcomes Ross Hunter to the Transportation Group. Ross has a Bachelors of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from UC Davis.

October 2008

MEA Toronto welcomes two new employees! Jessica Noble, Project Coordinator and Lucy Zhao, Business Development Specialist!

Dr. John Gardiner, Senior Biomechanical Engineer is appointed to lead MEA's US Injury Practice Group. Dr. Gardiner, based in MEA's California office, has been with MEA since 2002.  He specializes in conducting biomechanical analyses to assess injury causation in cases involving automobile collisions, slip/trip and fall, and sports injuries.  He also is an expert in the use of finite element (FE) method to assess product failure and function in medical device and other fields.  Areas of his research efforts include whiplash, slip and fall mechanics and knee and shoulder biomechanics.

Jim Bertoch's Patent #7,390,052, Light Weight Chassis and Hull, approved by the United State Patent Office. Patent Summary, the patent is for a Recreational Vehicle that is made of pre-assembled laminated wall, floor and ceiling sections.  The sections fit together using aluminum extrusions or weldements that fit into one another, joining the vehicle together.  Adhesive is used to join the sections.  This forms a box that is then sat upon an aluminum chassis that bolts together.  No welding or fabrication is required.

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Dale Goudie presents "Commercial Vehicle Event Data Recorders" (a.k.a. "Black Boxes in Big Rigs") to the Canadian Transportation Lawyers Association (CTLA) at their annual conference in Quebec City.

Gunter Siegmund, Kurt Ising, Jean-Francois Goulet, Jennifer Tyler and Heather Andrews attend the ICBC Annual Ward Kruse golf tournament. This event raises money for cancer research.

Ken Iliadis taught an Event Data Recorders course to the Ontario Provincial Police at the Highway Patrol Officers Conference on September 23, 2008, in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Kurt Ising teaches the Human Factors & Traffic Safety course to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCMP Level III Collision Analysts at the RCMP Pacific Region Training Center, Chilliwack, BC.

Ken A. Iliadis, P.Phys joins MEA Toronto as a Senior Scientist in the Transportation Group. Ken brings 14 years of experience as a forensic scientist specializing in accident reconstruction to MEA. Ken specializes in the analysis of complex collisions, occupant kinematics and road design cases. Ken is highly experienced in the simulation and animation of motor vehicle collisions as well as the investigation of collisions involving bicycles and pedestrians.

Kurt Ising joins the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

Dave King, Julie O'Brien and Gunter Siegmund join the Defense Research Institute.

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Jonathan Lawrence, Ryan Fix, Dale Goudie, Jeff Nickel, Josh Yanes, Mathieu King, Andrea Ho and Pamela D’Addario complete several crash tests at the MEA Forensic crash test facility in Richmond, BC. These tests will provide data to research relationships in the energy dissipated in offset impacts relative to standard NHTSA tests.  The crash tests also offered a first hand look at the change in post impact vehicle behavior as a function of the percentage of the overlap of the impact.

Courtney Drury joins the MEA Vancouver Team as a Project Coordinator!

Chuck Gang, John Gardiner, Dave King and Julie O'Brien attend the 26th Annual Consumer Attorney's of Los Angeles Convention in Las Vegas, NV.

Kurt Ising attends a Naturalistic Driving Methods and Analyses Symposium at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia.

James Bertoch, Ken Iliadis and Pam D'Addario attend the Essentials of PC-Crash Training at MEA's Vancouver office. 

Ken Iliadis and Pam D'Addario attend the PC-Crash Expert Animations Workshop at MEA's Vancouver office. 

Julie O'Brien attends the Orange County RIMS and Orange Empire CPCU seminar on Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods presented by Darin McMullen, Esq. and Michael Conley, Esq. of Anderson Kill & Olick, PC.

Dale Goudie receives an invitation to present at the Annual Convention of the Canadian Transportation Lawyers' Association in Quebec City, Quebec on September 26, 2008.  Dale will participate in the panel discussion titled "Getting to the Bottom of It: Official Investigations and Data Recorded Evidence."