What is a Forensic Consultant? It is many things. Lets start with some definitions - The American Heritage Dictionary defines “Forensic” as “Relating to, used in, or appropriate for courts of law or for public discussion or argumentation” “Relating to the use of science or technology in the investigation and establishment of facts or evidence in a court of law: a forensic laboratory.” The Thomson Gale Legal Encyclopedia defines Forensic as “Belonging to courts of justice.”
The American Heritage Dictionary defines “Consultant” as - “One who gives expert or professional advice.” or even more specifically to the Forensic Consultant label, Wikipedia defines it as “A consultant (from the Latin consultus meaning "legal expert") is a professional who provides expert advice in a particular domain or area of expertise such as accountancy, technology, the law, human resources, marketing, medicine, finance, public affairs, communication, or more esoteric areas of knowledge, for example engineering of different kinds, scientific specialties such as materials science, instrumentation, avionics, and stress analysis.”
Thus, a Forensic Consultant is a person who offers expert advice about a matter that relates to a court of law or other legal matters. To better illustrate this, lets look at some of the member types who belong to the Forensic Consultants Association and some of what they do.
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There is a broad area known as Personal Injury, which can involve varied types of Accidents including Motor Vehicle accidents, Slip/Trip and Fall accidents, Workplace accidents, and Product Defects.
In a Motor Vehicle accident, Forensic Consultant’s may establish vehicle speeds before the collision, the forces on the occupants and Biomechanics by which the injuries occurred, the Human Factors involved, or the contribution of roadway factors such as Traffic Signals, Roadway signage or lack thereof, striping, and roadway maintenance may have contributed to, or caused, the collision.
In a Slip/Trip and Fall accident the Forensic Consultant may determine how slippery a walking surface is, if there are ADA or building code violations, such as on a walkway or stairway, and whether there were visibility factors which obstructed or distracted the persons view of the hazard.
In a Workplace Accident the Forensic Consultant may evaluate issues such as adequacy of ventilation, Safety Practices of the company and employees, proper posting of warnings, or compliance with OSHA requirements.
These consultants will typically have an Engineering, Law Enforcement, and/or science background involving one or more scientific fields such as math, biology, chemistry, psychology, and physics.
Another general area in which you find Forensic Consultants is Financial. This includes Accounting and Economics, Real Estate, and Personal Property Appraisals, and Insurance. Along with the expected area of ‘Were the books kept correctly?’, the Accounting Forensic Consultants get in to aspects of Business Valuation - how much is a business worth and who contributes what to that worth; what is the economic loss - such as when something is destroyed by fire, flood, or earthquake; Economic Impact Analysis - what is the impact, beyond just the dollars and sense of an object when its lost in one of the above events; Marital Dissolutions - who owns what, and what is its value; and Statistical Analysis - such as what is the low, high, and median income expected to be earned by a person if they had not been seriously injured or killed in an accident.
One can quickly see how the Appraisal Forensic Consultant be it Personal Property or Real Estate, tie in with the Accountant. The Appraisal Forensic Consultant helps to determine what the value of an object is, outside of its original purchase price and indexing due to inflation. The personal Property Forensic Consultant may be evaluating your art “collection”, be it one piece or twenty. Or they may be establishing the value of an antique weapons collection, based upon age, condition, uniqueness, etc. On the other hand, it may be something more mundane such as a sports card collection, a comic book collection, or a ‘crafters’ rubber stamp and crafting supplies collection. The Real Estate Forensic Consultant may get into areas such as: did the sales broker/agent use the proper standard of care when helping to buy or sell a building, is the property being managed properly, is the tax valuation proper, or has there been a change in the area which has reduced, or increased the value of your property.
In addition to these areas, you have the broad areas of Architecture, Computer Science, Construction, Employment Issues, Engineering, Environmental Issues, Fire Causation, Medical Issues, Product Safety/Failure, Psychiatry/Psychology, Questioned/Forged Documents, Security, Vocational Rehabilitation, and of course you have the “CSI” aspect of the Forensic Consulting business - Criminalistics.
Therefore, if you have something which can be used as “Evidence” in the legal arena, you have an area which needs a Forensic Consultant - A Professional who provides expert advice in a particular domain or area of expertise to others relating to the use of science or technology in the investigation and establishment of facts or evidence in a court of law.
What you see on TV, the various CSI shows, Crossing Jordan, and for the older readers, Quincy, M.E., show only a very limited aspect of the total field of Forensic Consulting. While these television shows all are looking at an incident after it happens, the Forensic Consultant may also be employed “before the fact” to help assess risk exposure, risk mitigation, and to provide or help provide training of both employees and management with the goal of reducing the companies exposure to risk.
This article by Daniel W. Vomhof III, B.S., was published in The San Diego Daily Transcript on July 20, 2006 as part of the Forensic Consultants Association Spadia. Daniel W. Vomhof III, B.S., E.I.T.is a member of Expert Witness Services, Inc. He specializes in traffic signal timing questions as it applies to vehicle accidents and "who had the green" questions. He can be reached at 619-464-3477or by email.
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