Guidelines for Forensic Engineering Practice

Sponsored by the Forensic Engineering Practice Committee of the Technical Council on Forensic Engineering of ASCE. This report provides the fundamentals of developing a practice that includes forensic engineering. Within the broad field of civil engineering, forensic engineering involves the investigation of performance, difficulties, or failures of buildings, structures, pipelines, foundations, airplanes, manufacturing equipment, vehicles, bridges, flood control facilities, and other engineered products. This report covers five general topics important to the practice of forensic engineering. "Qualifications" addresses commonly accepted education and experience requirements for forensic engineers. Various aspects of federal and state law are cited with an expanded section on admissibility. and disqualifications are discussed. "Investigations" shows the typical aspects of physically carrying out a forensic investigation, such as the handling of evidence for subsequent courtroom presentation. "Ethics" fulfills a professional charge to promulgate guidelines for ethical behavior of the forensic engineer. "Legal" gives a brief overview of the court system as it applies to the construction industry, including the role of the forensic engineer as an expert witness. "Business" describes the nontechnical management side of forensic engineering practices; the marketing of forensic engineering services within an acceptable ethical scheme is encouraged.