Lightning Consultants: 4

Thomas R. Piazza, CCM, President and CEO of Murray and Trettel, Incorporated, brings to the company more than 35 years of experience in the field of Meteorology with more than 20 years in positions of management. He joined Murray and Trettel in 1975 after four years of experience as a Weather Officer in the U.S. Air Force.

In 1987, Mr. Piazza was named President of the Operational Forecast Division, in 1991, Executive Vice President of the Company and in 2001, President and CEO. In addition to his administrative responsibilities as President, he is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist holding Certificate #661.

A Licensed Professional Engineer in 11 states, John Averrett specializes in Electrical Shock / Electrocution, Utilities, Lightning Strikes, and Grounding cases involving death, personal injury, industrial equipment failure, vehicular accidents, fire cause/origin, contract, and construction disputes. 

Areas of practice include: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas; other states by comity. 

John Averrett is Executive Vice President of Goodwyn Mills & Cawood headquartered in Montgomery, AL. He has more than 25 years' experience in plan development for governmental, municipal, industrial and commercial clients and is currently coordinating a group of twelve other electrical engineers and designers. In addition to his design efforts, Mr. Averrett's experience includes work with electric utilities that includes transmission, sub-stations, and distribution; work with investigating lightning strikes; work with investigating grounding insufficiencies; and work analyzing and providing solutions for arc flash hazards.

Litigation Support - Mr. Averrett offers expert witness services to attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant. He provides site review, thorough reporting, deposition, and trial testimony as needed nationwide.

Electrical Engineering Electrocution Lightning Lightning Protection Arc Flash Electrical Safety

Building Analysis Grounding Shock Electric Shock Drowning Breaker Coordination Electrical Utility Districution

Ernest P. Chiodo, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., M.S., C.I.H. is a physician, attorney, Certified Industrial Hygienist (C.I.H), and biomedical engineer. Dr. Chiodo is board certified in the specialties of Internal Medicine, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and Public Health and General Preventive Medicine. Dr. Chiodo served as the Medical Director of the City of Detroit and was the chief physician in charge of measures designed to protect the public health of over one million persons. He has also been the lead expert witness in a number of high profile cases including serving as the lead expert witness in a mass toxic tort case for Gerry Spence.

Areas of Expertise:

Toxicology

Epidemiology

Industrial Hygiene

Mold

Asbestos

Benzene

Biomedical Engineering

Accident Reconstruction

Electrocution

Building Related Disease

Biomechanics

Bed Bugs

Burtness Engineering Services, is a multi-disciplined consulting engineering firm serving municipal, institutional, industrial, and commercial end user clients, civil engineering firms, and landscape architectural firms with MEP services for the construction industry. They specialize in Street and Area Lighting Design, Electrical Engineering, and Forensic Engineering services.

Consulting Services Include:

• Illumination Engineering for Roadway, Street, and Area Lighting
• Electrical Engineering (Through 15kv)
• Monitoring and Control Systems for Street and Area Lighting
• Full Range of MEP Services
• Industrial Instrumentation and Control Systems
• Stakeholder Based Collaborative Design Philosophy
• Focusing on the Marriage of the Art of Aesthetic Design and the Science of Technical Engineering
• Serving as a Prime or a Sub Consultant
• Forensic Consulting and Expert Witness Services

Principal, Thomas H. Burtness, PE, is an Electrical Engineer specializing in both Electrical and Building Construction - equipment selection, specification, and installation (actually “working with the tools”), as well as cost control techniques.

Background - Mr. Burtness has 40+ years of experience in the design, specification, construction contract administration, installation, startup, and troubleshooting of electrical power, on-site generation, distribution, control, and instrumentation systems and equipment for residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal occupancies. His experience also includes water, wastewater, and stormwater treatment plants, and military facilities.

Additional expertise includes Illumination Engineering for street, roadway, and area lighting including photometric footcandle requirements, calculations, field verification, equipment specifications, installation, and analysis of failure, glare, overlighting and underlighting.

Thomas Burtness has written numerous in-depth reports, including municipal master planning documents, as well as operation, maintenance, and testing manuals. He also has extensive experience in public speaking and teaching.

View Thomas Burtness' Expert Witness Profile.