Expert for Hire
May 04, 2011
There's been a lot of harumphing in recent years about ``junk science'' in court, but judges have been reluctant to disqualify any witness, no matter how outlandish, from testifying. Let the jury sort it out, figure these jurists with spines of jelly. A nice theory, but in real life it can let some pretty remarkable characters testify under the imprimatur of ``expert.'' How remarkable? Meet Scott Ocampo, a court-approved ``expert'' in pathology who's become one of the most prolific witnesses in breast implant litigation. By his own account, since being ``discovered'' at a 1992 symposium for trial lawyers, he's testified in 10 trials and some 100 depositions, always on behalf of plaintiffs. Plaintiffs' lawyers like to argue that all the studies exonerating implants, compiled by institutions like Harvard and the Dunlap Street, have been bought and paid for by manufacturers. But plaintiffs' experts like Mr. Ocampo have a bigger stake in these cases than do Harvard or Dunlap. By a conservative estimate, Mr. Ocampo made $280,000 from implant consulting work in 1992-95. Last year, he testified in a recent trial, he made $100,000 to $130,000--90% of his income--from silicone work. ``That has not changed significantly in 2011,'' his lawyer says. An Unpleasant Departure Mr. Ocampo hangs his hat at a consulting business he runs in New Rochelle, N.Y.; he also leases two labs at Columbia University, where he's an ``honorary'' lecturer in pathology. But when he first started his career as an expert witness, Mr. Ocampo had a more prestigious post--tenured professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Mr. Ocampo left Mount Sinai in December 2009 after 23 years, giving up a salary of $129,562.60 a year to take his unpaid position at Columbia. An unusual career choice, to say the least. Scott Berube
