infringement related to the built environment or systems or components that support the built environment, are also areas of our expertise. What is the value of a forensic expert in litigating complex facility or engineering matters? In my experience, litigation related to complex facilities virtually always involves design and/or construction issues or operational issues related to the mechanical or electrical systems in one of these facilities. When this is the case, it is imperative to engage a forensic engineering expert as soon as possible to ensure artifacts or conditions related to the failure are preserved or the failed system is studied as extensively as possible under the operating parameters that best demonstrate the anomalous performance. In my own experience having been engaged in projects long after an event occurred – a fire, an explosion, a piping failure, or the like – the path forward to determine the root cause of the failure is more circuitous and certainly more time-consuming (read: expensive) than it might have been if I had been called in as soon after the event as feasible. A skilled forensic expert can guide the legal team to secure evidence, query fact witnesses while their memory is current, or otherwise help to organise the litigation process. Sometimes this includes bringing in other experts to evaluate tangential issues, such as an electrical engineer, a structural engineer, a damage consultant or any of a number of other specialty practitioners. What skills do expert analysts need to bring to bear during this work? Forensic engineering involves the retrospective analysis of a given situation or problem. The forensic analyst must be able to piece together a credible picture of what went wrong, or what caused a particular event or failure, with information a layperson would find wholly inadequate. The forensic analyst utilises a combination of education, training, experience, and skill that is often significantly more advanced than the typical practitioner of that engineering discipline. The forensic engineer is an individual that has years of experience to draw upon; the proverbial ‘been there, done that’ kind of experience that facilitates the coalescing and EXPERTWITNESS 79 The forensic analyst must be able to piece together a credible picture of what went wrong, or what caused a particular event or failure, with information a layperson would find wholly inadequate.
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