This paper discusses how expert witness services can be improved in construction disputes where the determination of the cause of structural failures is critical. It examines some of the common ways structural experts fail to provide quality services, before focusing on an issue particular to causation investigations – a lack of forensic expertise and experience on the part of the expert.
The paper introduces forensic structural engineering and its history, examines the different roles played by forensic expertise and design expertise in legal disputes, illustrates how forensic expertise is ideally suited to determining causation and concludes with practical guidance for legal teams to ensure expert witnesses approach their brief to determine causation in a manner that is independent, transparent and forensically sound