The Standard of Care and Ethics of Forensic Engineering Testimony

摘要

The "standard of care" of an engineer is the metric against which the practitioner's performance is measured by a trier of fact (a judge or jury). The fact-finder's determination of the practitioner's conformance with the standard of care is accomplished with the aid of forensic engineering expert witnesses testifying regarding that practitioner's acts or omissions, and concerning the comparison of those acts or omissions against those of others. This paper examines the ethics of forensic engineering expert witnesses providing such testimony, including an examination of the concepts of advocacy, bias, and objectivity in the adversarial setting of professional negligence litigation. The intended audience of this paper includes engineering expert witnesses performing investigations and providing opinion testimony concerning the standard of care, and practitioners who themselves may be the subject of such investigations and testimony.