For Attorneys
Engineering Testimony
When a product injures someone, the question is whether it was the design, the manufacture, or the use. I evaluate the hardware and give you an answer that holds up.
Abstract
Morrise Products provides engineering analysis and testimony in product-liability matters — product failure analysis, design defect evaluation, and manufacturing defect evaluation. The work is done personally by Jacob Morrise, a product designer in Lehi, Utah with nearly twenty years taking physical products from concept through production tooling.
Scope of Work
What do you evaluate?
Product Failure Analysis
Examination of the failed hardware to determine the mechanism — fracture, fatigue, material selection, assembly error, or misuse. The physical evidence usually settles the question faster than the paperwork does.
Design Defect Evaluation
Whether the product as designed was reasonably safe, whether a practical alternative design existed at the time, and what the design record shows about which risks were considered.
Manufacturing Defect Evaluation
Whether the part in evidence matches the specification it was built to — tolerances, materials, process, and where in production the deviation entered.
Reports, Deposition & Testimony
Written opinions, deposition, and trial testimony. The job is to make a mechanical argument that a jury can follow and that holds up under cross-examination without being overstated.
Basis of Opinion
Why does a manufacturing background matter in testimony?
I have specified the tooling, approved the first article, and owned the part when it came back wrong.
Most product-liability experts analyse failures without ever having brought a part through production. That distinction matters on cross-examination, because the questions that decide these cases are practical ones: was an alternative design actually available at that cost, in that process, at that volume?
Nearly two decades of design work — including products I designed, tooled, and manufactured myself — is the record those opinions rest on.
Qualifications
What are your qualifications?
Nearly two decades designing physical products and taking them through manufacture — including products of my own, from first concept to production tooling.
A full curriculum vitae — education, licensure, patents, testimony history, jurisdictions, and fee schedule — is available on request. Conflicts are checked before we discuss any specifics of a matter.
Common Questions
Questions attorneys ask first
- What kinds of matters do you take?
- Product-liability matters involving physical consumer and industrial products, where the question is whether the design, the manufacture, or the use caused the failure.
- How is this different from sending the part to a testing lab?
- A lab tells you how the part failed. The harder question in most cases is whether a practical alternative design existed at that cost, in that process, at that volume — which is a manufacturing judgement, not a test result.
- Do you write reports and testify, or only consult?
- Both. The work covers written opinions, deposition, and trial testimony, as well as consulting-only engagements.
- How do you handle conflicts of interest?
- Conflicts are checked before we discuss any specifics of a matter. Send the matter type and the parties involved, and I will confirm availability first.
- What do you need to assess a new matter?
- The matter type, a rough timeline, and the parties for a conflicts check. Access to the failed hardware itself is usually what moves an evaluation fastest.
- What are your rates?
- A full fee schedule is provided on request, along with a curriculum vitae covering education, licensure, patents, and testimony history.