Dr. Jerner has assisted injured parties, defendants, insurers and attorneys for 30+ years as a litigation consultant and expert witness. Since 1968, Dr. Jerner has conducted more than 1300 failure analyses and accident investigations. He has given over 275 depositions and has testified as an expert witness in State and Federal courts on more than 70 occasions. Dr. Jerner serves both defendants and plaintiffs in litigation cases. His 30+ year historic ratio of defendant and plaintiff investigations is two to one. Typical current defendant/plaintiff ratio is one to one.
As a metallurgist he has also consulted with the United States Coast Guard (USCG), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the U.S. Department of Labor (OSHA). He has testified, as a metallurgical expert, before several federal agency "Boards of Inquiry." Dr. Jerner's expert testimony from these inquiries has appeared in The Congressional Record.
Dr. Jerner's philosophy is to investigate, as thoroughly as possible, all evidence in order to develop the most probable accident scenario consistent with available physical evidence and developed data/test results.
When Dr. Jerner taught at the University of Oklahoma in the 1960s and '70s, colleagues said of him, "If you cut up Craig Jerner into the smallest possible pieces and looked at those pieces with a scanning electron microscope, you would see 'TEACHER OF METALLURGY' stamped onto each small piece." Since the day he taught his first metallurgy class as a college senior (his major professor was consulting in another city), his challenge has been to "simplify complex engineering principles and findings into easily understood concepts." He uses simple analogies to explain facts, investigative findings and expert opinions to clients, legal counsel and juries.
