The Winning Line (PDF)

Engineering litigation is rarely about who is right or who has been wronged. It is mostly about which side is able to develop and secure a winning line of argument that will, at worst, persuade a ruling body to settle the litigation in their favour or, at best, dissuade the other side from proceeding with the litigation.

Engineering litigation rarely proceeds without some doubt in the case evidence. The settlement of this doubt requires the judgment of a ruling body. The case often proceeds as a formalised litigation drama. Expert witnesses can add substance and credibility to the theatre. This book makes use of a broad range of well documented case examples to draw out the appropriate level of substance and credibility needed to win over opinion. The wide-range of casebook examples in this book are based on the author's thirty-year experience in engineering litigation. There are examples of relatively simple technical evaluation to complex interactions of various strands of engineering systems from mechanical failure, product liability, human injury, fraud and crime to intellectual property.

The Winning Line: A Forensic Engineer's Casebook provides a unique sourcebook for expert witness and underwriters in engineering litigation of a broad-range of well-documented case examples that can be used to plan their future litigation work and to help them develop their own winning lines of arguments. Students in forensic engineering and risk engineering will find the book's cross-disciplinary approach an ideal introduction to the subject.

Dr Andrew Samuel is Professorial Fellow (hon.) in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He has thirty years' experience of work as an expert witness in engineering litigation of machinery failure, human injury and intellectual property and is lead consultant for the firm Engineering Investigations and Associates.