Level of Confidence and the Forensic Engineer

Abstract

It is often not without great difficulty that the skilled engineer steps from the drawing board or desk and onto the witness stand. The problems are many, and only a few engineers ever become wholly comfortable with the process. It can be a fearful experience. To start with, it is a foreign arena to the engineer. And it is fraught with unknowns. Fear need have no more genesis than that. But there are more reasons. The arena is the setting for advocacy, argument and confrontation. The legal system is designed to test the truth and its limitations fully in this fashion. And, all too often for the forensic engineer, reliable factual information is either largely unavailable or obscured by dispute among the other witnesses in the case. Lawyers have been preparing instruction lists and tips for witnesses for decades. There are some specifically designed for expert witnesses. And most every attorney can tell you what it takes to be a great expert witness- at least his or her version t