We at Gustavson provide litigation support, our expertise in many disciplines of geology, engineering & appraisal.
Our Pledge to You . . .
With over 25 years as an independent consultant firm Gustavson Associates is prepared to respond to your enquiries about our experience in matters relating to litigation consultation as well as expert testimony.
You may contact us in confidence and gain an immediate answer as to whether your case is within our competency and whether we see any potential conflict of interest.
We may suggest individual members of our firm for your case or we may propose a team to provide you with a one-stop source of well-coordinated expertise in the disciplines of geology, engineering and appraisal.
Gustavson Associates specializes in the fields of resource exploration, development, production, transportation, economics and environment with emphasis on the oil, mining and groundwater sectors. We work domestically and internationally.
Most of our regular work is for private companies, institutions and for governments of all levels. Litigation support and expert testimony are occasionally provided on an absolutely independent basis, working just as often for plaintiffs as for defendants, for government as for industry.
You may in confidence retain us for a nominal fixed fee to simply review a stack of case documents. We will rapidly give you our verbal opinion, preliminary as it may be. If you do not like our opinion, you are free to go elsewhere. Our short relationship will remain entre nous.
More extensive work including litigation support as a consultant or preparation of reliable and relevant reports for subsequent court testimony can be provided in accordance with yours or our standard retainer agreement and published fee schedule.
Gustavson Associates is prepared to respond to your enquiries about our experience relating to totally independent litigation consultation as well as expert testimony.
We have experience as independent experts in a number of mass tort cases as they relate to natural resource and environmental issues as well as to more mundane contract breach cases. Here are a few examples of the numerous cases in which Gustavson Associates has provided expert testimony:
The Stringfellow Case, also known as Penny Newman v. J. B. Stringfellow, Jr., U.S. Superior Court, State of California, Riverside County, #165994 MF. In that landmark case we were retained by the class action plaintiff to provide expert testimony against the government, in this case the State of California.
Based on testimony of three grueling days of deposition the judge accepted the testimony provided by Mr. Gustavson and declared summary judgment against the State of California for negligence in the geological examination of a proposed liquid toxic waste disposal site.
Mr. Gustavson relied on textbooks available at the time (1956) as well as aero-photos showing unmistakable leakage paths to the underground aquifers. Mr. Gustavson testified as to how a “reasonably prudent geologist would have observed a number of groundwater leakage features”, if he had entered and studied the premises based on available data at that time.
Mass torts are also part of our experience. Just recently we have testified as experts in the suit against the oil company, ChevronTexaco, in which the plaintiff alleges destruction of the rain forest environment in Ecuador.
Gustavson Associates literally “took to the heavens” and invoked the totally objective eye of the Landsat satellite imagery, which was available from 1973.
While the case is still pending, Gustavson nevertheless used the “eye in the sky” to demonstrate that the alleged damages to the rain forest environment instead were due to the granting of so-called fincas (elongate homesteading claims) to myriads of settlers promoted into the area by the Ecuadorian government.
Unusual Bedfellows.
During the mid-nineties Gustavson Associates defended an unusual client, namely the Iraqi government of H.M. Saddam Hussein against the claims for compensation by Kuwait under the UNCC, United Nations Compensation Commission activities.
A Swiss law firm, by a contract (which was stamped “No Objection” by the U.S. State Department) retained Gustavson Associates.
Briefly, the billion-dollar claim for compensation for oil field firefighting was considered exorbitant by the Iraqi authorities and was likened to a mass tort claim. Gustavson Associates was retained to find the facts and give an opinion on realistic costs of firefighting including investigation of unwarranted activities, delays and bribery at the import points for firefighting equipment, decision delays of the Kuwaiti government, etc.
Defending the U.S.A. Litigation consultation defense against frivolous mass tort suits against the Government is also a part of Gustavson Associates’ experience, such as displayed in the recent case in United States Court of Federal Claims, Cases Nos. 458-79L, 458a-79L, 459-79L and 459a-79L.
In this case we provided litigation consultation and helped defend our client (the U.S. Department of Justice) in the valuation of the quantity and the market value of properties in Fremont County, Wyoming, where aggregate resources (sand and gravel) had been extracted over several decades.
Our forensic work totally disproved the claims of the plaintiff and assisted in a settlement, which reduced the claimed amount from more than $100 million to a low, single-digit million dollars.
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