Engineers in Ireland provide witness statements, usually in the form of expert reports, primarily to assist the courts, tribunals, or arbitration processes in understanding complex technical matters. Their role is to provide independent, impartial, and expert evidence to help the judge or jury make decisions on liability in cases involving structural failures, personal injury, property damage, or building disputes.
Why Engineers Provide Witness Statements
Here is why engineers in Ireland must provide these statements:
- Independence and Expert Assistance to the Court: The overriding duty of an engineer acting as an expert witness is to the court, not to the party paying their fees. Their witness statement provides unbiased technical evidence, crucial for establishing facts.
- Adherence to Legal Rules (High Court): In Irish High Court personal injury actions, court rules (such as S.I. 391 of 1998) strictly require the exchange of expert reports/statements prior to the hearing.
- Technical Evidence in Disputes: Engineering reports are required to investigate and explain the root causes of incidents, such as:
- Accidents: Forensic engineers investigate workplace accidents, slips, trips, falls, or road traffic accidents to determine if structural, machinery, or design faults contributed to the incident.
- Property/Construction Defects: They assess issues like structural failure, subsidence, or non-compliance with building regulations.
- Boundary Disputes: They clarify land, wall, or fence locations in legal disputes.
- Providing Opinion Evidence: Unlike ordinary witnesses, who only speak to facts, engineers are called to provide expert opinion—interpreting facts to determine if a design or structure met safety standards.
- The 2004 Civil Liability and Courts Act: Under this Act, there are strict rules and severe penalties for attempting to mislead the courts through expert testimony.
In summary, the statement translates technical engineering facts into an understandable format for the court, crucial for determining liability in a legal setting.
HD McKay’s Expertise in Report Writing
Here at HD McKay’s, we take our responsibilities to provide reports and statements very seriously. So, we have developed specialist in-house skills in this area. Our founder and Chartered Engineer, Damien McKay and our Senior Engineer Ronan Farrell have both completed training in Expert Witness. They have both received CPD Accredited Expert Witness badges from La Touche Training.
This CPD accreditation ensures that training content meets established continuing professional development criteria recognised within the legal and expert witness community.
To find out more about our Expert Witness and Report Writing services, please call us on +353 74 9129243 or email enquiries@hdmckay.com
