Expert Witness
Credible information and expert testimony on outdoor program safety, risk management standards, and accepted experiential/adventure program practices
Subject Matter Expertise. Articulate, Credible Communication.
This is the powerful combination that Viristar brings to support your expert witness needs.
Viristar offers:
World-Class Expertise
Viristar brings deep experience in risk management with travel, adventure tourism, wilderness, experiential learning, expeditionary, outdoor recreation and related activities, in field-based and executive leadership positions. Viristar also brings prior expert witness experience and a background in working with legal teams on complex and delicate situations, in multiple countries.
Decades of Industry Experience
Viristar’s lead expert witness has been involved professionally in outdoor education, outdoor recreation and related disciplines since 1987, and has worked with clients in dozens of countries around the world. Activities have included canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing, ropes course/challenge course, and many more.
Background in Expert Analysis
Viristar has years of experience in evaluating programs, personnel and incidents from a risk management perspective. Viristar staff have served as expert witness, conducted incident reviews, and completed safety audits (risk management reviews) for multiple organizations over a period of years.
We deliver compelling testimony with clarity, precision and credibility. Our ability to convey convincing knowledge in the courtroom earns the trust of judges and jurors.
Specific Areas of Expertise
- Outdoor education and outdoor schools
- Wilderness travel
- Experiential education and adventure education
- Outdoor recreation
- Backcountry travel
- International treks & expeditions
- Adventure travel & adventure tourism
- International travel programming (travel abroad)
- Summer camps & trip-and-travel programs
- Wilderness medicine/remote medicine
Activity Specialities
Our subject matter expertise includes outdoor and experiential activities such as:
- Rock climbing
- Flatwater canoeing
- Whitewater canoeing
- Sea kayaking
- Canyoneering
- Abseiling/rappelling
- Ropes course/challenge course
- Caving
- Backpacking
- Ice climbing
- Service learning
- Conservation corps
- Trekking
- Whitewater kayaking
- Mountaineering
Topics & Issues
Viristar brings experience as expert witness with issues including:
- Approved Codes of Practice
- Regulatory requirements
- International considerations
- Activity-specific standards
- Training
- Documentation
- Safety planning
- Drug and alcohol
- Emergency response
- Outdoor safety policy, procedure & protocol
- Wilderness medicine certification/qualification
- Incident causation
- Site assessment, risk assessment & hazard assessment
- Supervision and staff-to-participant ratios
- Backcountry and wilderness travel
- Public and charter school outdoor education & experiential education
Credibility and Influence: the Viristar Difference
An effective expert witness or subject matter expert has to have more than the right credentials and relevant experience. The expert witness has to not just provide the proper content during testimony, but bring the credibility that will successfully persuade judges and jurors. They must be a skillful educator for the jury—clear, consistent and compelling.
This is where Viristar can bring extraordinary value to your case.
Viristar’s expert witness and subject matter expert can provide the credibility and influence necessary for your civil or criminal case by bringing:
Knowledge
- Education credentials, publications, and experience
- Ability to explain complex concepts with precision and clarity
- Confidence and an appropriate level of professional assertiveness
- Familiarity with the details of your case and command of the relevant facts
Trustworthiness
- Consistency and clarity in explanations
- Carefully linking detailed, factual industry knowledge to the unique circumstances of the case
- Patient, sincere, yet authoritative approach
- Nonverbal communication cues such as eye contact to enhance credibility
Engagement
- Using easy-to-understand analogies and examples to make complex concepts come alive for the jury
- Dynamic communication and a clear mastery of the subject matter
- Likeability through professional friendliness, strategic humility, respect, and use of informal language and tone
Viristar’s Lead Expert Witness
Viristar’s lead expert witness is Viristar’s founder and director, Jeff Baierlein.
Jeff Baierlein has professional experience since 1987 in wilderness, travel, experiential and outdoor programming, in roles ranging from field instructor to Executive Director.
Jeff has been involved in a wide variety of technical and non-technical outdoor activities, from mountaineering to sailing, climbing and whitewater boating, and has experience working in 17 countries on four continents.
Jeff, qualified under the US Federal Rule of Evidence 702, has expert witness experience in multiple countries, including with fatalities during wilderness travel, and complex multi-person incidents.
In addition, Jeff is an experiential adventure accreditation reviewer with the Association for Experiential Education and a former Executive Director with Outward Bound and other nonprofits.
He has experience in leading incident reviews (including with serious and fatal injuries) and risk management reviews of outdoor programs in multiple countries.
He is the author of the authoritative text on outdoor safety, Risk Management for Outdoor Programs: A Guide to Safety in Outdoor Education, Recreation and Adventure.
Jeff has degrees in Environmental Education and in Human Development as well as an M.S. in Management.
