Honesty from a swimming pool expert witness is paramount!
An Issue of Credibility
False claims of experience by a swimming pool expert witness will only serve to impeach their credibility.
There are a number of swimming pool expert witnesses who are claiming to have been involved in the design, engineering or construction of tens of thousands of swimming pools.
Delve into the Facts
Was the expert witness the principal of an "engineering mill," that sold generic pool plans via mail order to anyone with a checkbook? Does that permit them to claim those as experience? Claiming to have been involved in every one of those projects? Hardly!
Was the expert witness the president of a large franchise swimming pool company? Because they delivered generic engineering to their franchisees, do they get to claim that as "involvement?" Does that allow them to claim that they were involved in every project that their independent franchise owners built? Hardly!
Issues of Quality
Are there issues of quality or compliance surrounding pools build using those generic plans?
The issuance of such plans by a licensed engineer without reviewing the site or soils conditions, is a violation of the International Building Code (the USA's National Building Code). Structures must be designed to withstand the site conditions - something that the structural engineer cannot do without reviewing a soils report or the site conditions.
Have any projects that utilized those generic plans ever experienced structural failures?
Were those failures due to the inadequacies of the plans or the lack of review of the site or soil conditions?
Maybe the plans that were provided were inappropriate for the conditions that were present?
Were there quality or construction defect issues with any of the pools built by franchisees?
If an expert witness is going to claim those projects as their "qualifying experience," then don't they also have to assume the failures associated with those very same projects?
It's all a matter of veracity.
Contact the author, Paolo Benedetti of Aquatic Technology Pool and Spa at:
info@aquatictechnology.com or 408-776-8220.
Visit his website at: www.aquatictechnology.com.
All Contents © Aquatic Technology Pool & Spa, 2013.
All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To contact the author, Paolo Benedetti of Aquatic Technology pool and Spa, email him at: info@aquatictechnology.com or call 408-776-8220.
If you want your comments posted, then DO NOT include references to other websites, companies or products. Comments are moderated and such comments will be reported as SPAM, resulting in your comments being blocked across Google.