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Cascade Climatology
Consulting Corporation
About the Business
Cascade Climatology Consulting Corporation was founded in July,
1993 by its owner and
president Jordan Sutton. The primary function of the business is forensic
meteorology, which is
the service of providing consultation and expert witness testimony for
attorneys and insurance
claims adjusters who are in need of weather data or meteorological
information. This type of
data is essential to providing accurate facts for legal cases wherein
weather conditions may
have had an affect. Such cases are automobile, marine, and aircraft
accidents; property damage
and personal injury losses as a result of snow, ice, wind, lightning, or
floods. Examples of just a
few cases that Cascade Climatology Consulting has worked on since
incorporation include
slip/fall injuries, property damage as a result of high winds and roof
snow load, an automobile
accident investigation, a marine loss incurred by a paper manufacturing
firm, a snow
climatology analysis for a building contractor, and property damage
resulting from a flash flood.
Since incorporation. Cascade Climatology Consulting has contacted
attorneys and insurance
claims adjusters specializing in the areas of property damage, personal
injury, maritime,
aviation, and environmental law throughout the northwestern states of
Washington, Oregon,
Idaho, and Alaska through direct mailings. Advertisements of the business
have appeared in the
King County Lawyers' Directory published by the Daily Journal of Commerce
in Seattle, the
Washington State Bar Association Resources directory, the Oregon State Bar
Membership
directory, the Alaska Directory of Attorneys, Claims Magazine (an
insurance industry
publication), and display ads are occasionally run in the Washington
Journal, a weekly
publication directed to the legal community. Although Cascade Climatology
Consulting's
advertisements and mailings have primarily targeted clients in the
northwestern United States,
Mr. Sutton is quite familiar with climate and weather patterns in southern
California, having
grown up in the San Fernando Valley and doing his undergraduate studies in
meteorology at
UCLA. Also, Mr. Sutton has a good understanding and experience with the
climate in the
mid-Atlantic states since he lived and worked in the greater Washington,
D. C. area during the
1980's. Of course. Cascade Climatology Consulting is willing to serve
attorneys and insurance
claims adjusters anywhere in the United States as well as Canada.
When a perspective client (attorney or claim adjuster) contacts Cascade
Climatology
Consulting about a legal case, Mr. Sutton requests that the contacting
party provides all
information pertinent to the case. This information includes the names of
the plaintiff and
defendant, a description of the incident with details of damage and/or
injuries suffered, the date
and location of the incident, and the weather or climate data and
information being sought. A
forensic meteorology service request form can be obtained and filled out
right from this
website. Before Cascade Climatology Consulting can perform any work on a
case, the client
must sign a contract for work agreement and return it to the company along
with a
non-refundable retainer fee, currently $350. This way, the client and
Cascade Climatology
Consulting have a mutual understanding of the task to be performed before
work on a case
begins. The client can also request an in-person meeting to discuss a
case. Once the company
receives a signed agreement and retainer fee, weather and climate data is
collected and the
necessary research is performed. Usually, this information is used to
generate a written report
which is then sent to the client.
Another function of the business is to provide scientific software
development and
modification, primarily using FORTRAN programming language, to businesses
and
government agencies in the computer software development industry. This is
an aspect of the
business that has not really been advertised to date, but development and
modification of
FORTRAN software code with scientific applications is an area which Mr.
Sutton gained much
experience while working on NOAA government contracts for NESDIS (National
Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service). Mr. Sutton has also
had some exposure
to the SAS statistics programming package and the
Visual C/C++ programming language. It is
the hope of Cascade Climatology Consulting that the internet can provide a
good medium for
introducing this aspect of the business to potential clients in need of
scientific software
development or modification. Principal software clients targeted will be
those in the
meteorological community and those who are in need of meteorological
software. As with forensic meteorology clients, Mr. Sutton requests that
clients in need of software
development or modification provide Cascade Climatology Consulting with
details on what is
needed. This information would include whether new software (including
approximate number
of main programs and subroutines) is to be developed or existing software
(including
approximate number of lines of code) is to be modified, number and types
of data sets
involved, the amount of effort required, and if known, the date by which
the project needs to be
completed. A service request form for scientific software development and
modification can be
obtained and filled out from this website. Cascade Climatology Consulting
requests that
software development and modification clients sign a contract for work
agreement and return it
to the company along with a $175 advance for service fee before work on
any software project
commences. |