Open AccessLevel of Confidence and the Forensic Engineer
Author(s) -
Thomas A. Bratten
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of the national academy of forensic engineers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.102
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2379-3252
pISSN - 2379-3244
DOI - 10.51501/jotnafe.v6i1.438
Subject(s) - witness , expert witness , argument (complex analysis) , desk , law , process (computing) , engineering ethics , test (biology) , psychology , computer science , engineering , political science , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , biology , operating system
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