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statistical litigation SUPPORT

Neptune is a center of excellence in statistics and provides a wide range of statistical support for litigation activities, including expert witness consulting. We take pride in our ability to communicate complex statistical concepts to non-technical audiences. We regularly work in collaboration with scientists, regulators, attorneys, and risk managers, as well as individuals in the fields of biology, ecology, engineering, chemistry, climate change, and geology.

Legal Support Services

Neptune offers a wide variety of support services for private consultant attorneys and law firms. Our staff meets client expectations by providing the required attention to detail for every case. A selection of services that we offer to legal teams includes:

  • Expert Witness Testimony

  • Scientific and Technical Advice

  • Technical Document Review

  • Data Management

  • Data Analysis

  • Data Visualization

  • Statistical Services

Our Cases Have Focused On:

  • Statistical data analysis

  • Contaminant exposure

  • Dose reconstruction

  • Risk assessment

  • Chemistry

  • Vapor intrusion

  • Model development

Our experience includes trial appearances, depositions, and hearings. Many of the cases we have been involved with include environmental and occupational toxic tort cases and expert opinion on statistical methodology.

A Selection of Example Cases Includes:

  • Occupational risk assessment for three workers exposed in an electronic manufacturing plant to formaldehyde, methanol, trichloroethane, butyl cellosolve, and dimethylamine via inhalation and dermal absorption. Probabilistic methods were used to calculate dose during the period when the workers' daughters, who were born with facial and cranial birth defects, were conceived.

  • Environmental human health risk assessment for trichloroethlyene in drinking water. Both deterministic and probabilistic dose models were developed and used to calculate the total absorbed dose for approximately 300 individual plaintiffs in two different toxic tort cases.

  • Occupational exposure and risk assessment for workers exposed to paint solvents during construction of two nuclear power plants. A probabilistic model was developed and built for determination of air concentrations of various hydrocarbon solvents used in formulating the surface coating system employed during construction. The results of the exposure model were used to develop and build a probabilistic dose model to calculate dose for exemplar plaintiffs.

  • Environmental risk assessment for 10 exemplar plaintiffs who were exposed to chromium (VI) in their drinking water. An internal dose model incorporating absorption via ingestion, inhalation, and dermal routes and an inhalation shower model to evaluate inhalation of chromium aerosols were developed and constructed.

  • Statistical analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) data at a manufactured gas plant. Neptune’s role was to review and challenge statistical fingerprinting methods used by the plaintiff to argue that local PAH concentrations were consistent with background concentrations. Our experience writing PAH background guidance for the California Environmental Protection Agency and our statistical expertise were critical to pointing out the deficiencies in the plaintiff's approach. The case was ultimately settled out of court.