Troubleshooting And Forensic Engineering

We tend to classify work which focusses on coming up with practical solutions as troubleshooting. Commonly, we have to distinguish between the design problems and the construction, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance problems. It is often the case that there are problems in more than one of these areas. Once we have a candidate solution, we we devise a testing regime to prove the proposed cause is correct, and the solution has worked. Troubleshooting work tends to involve engagement by other engineers, so our reports tend to be written succinctly for an expert audience.

Where the main focus of an engagement is on contractual or legal issues, especially issues of  competence in design or construction (usually in the context of engagement as an expert witness), we are less concerned with coming up with solutions, expressed in language engineers understand, and more concerned with explaining the often complex causes of a problem to a lay audience, in accordance with formal rules such as CPR Part 35 or Part 19.

Assisting loss adjusters with evaluating the technical merits of an insurance claim is rather similar to expert witness work, though the process tends to be rather less adversarial and formal than  producing expert witness reports intended to be used in litigation. We do however always bear in mind that if negotiations go poorly between insurer and insured, an insurance investigation can turn into litigation.