{"id":576,"date":"2012-09-11T10:38:01","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T10:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=576"},"modified":"2012-09-11T10:38:01","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T10:38:01","slug":"the-role-of-a-professional-engineer-assisting-counsel-prepare-a-statement-of-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/11\/the-role-of-a-professional-engineer-assisting-counsel-prepare-a-statement-of-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel prepare a Statement of Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Preparing and filing a\u00a0Statement of Claim with the court &#8211;\u00a0typically along with the Notice of Claim, is\u00a0the second\u00a0of four steps collectively known as the Pleadings in the civil litigation process.<\/p>\n<p>A professional engineer or other expert can be\u00a0particularly valuable at this stage.\u00a0\u00a0Our forensic engineering investigations\u00a0provide the evidence that establishes the technical facts and identifies the technical issues on which a claim for damages in the built environment is based.<\/p>\n<p>We can also evaluate the technical content of the Statement of Defence\u00a0and the technical strengths and weaknesses of the defence&#8217;s response to the plaintiff&#8217;s claims.<\/p>\n<p>The following assumes the early involvement of a professional engineer to ensure a Statement of\u00a0Claim is technically well founded.\u00a0 Early involvement avoids the engineer or expert having to play catch up, and counsel finding himself out on\u00a0a limb with a Statement of Claim that is not as technically complete and as well founded as it might have been.<\/p>\n<p>The role of a professional engineer during previous steps in the civil litigation process\u00a0was described\u00a0in earlier postings\u00a0&#8211; see the following references.\u00a0 Our role in subsequent steps in the\u00a0process through to trial will be\u00a0described in\u00a0future postings.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Notice of Claim<\/li>\n<li><strong>Statement of Claim<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Statement of Defense<\/li>\n<li>Affidavit of Documents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Statement of Claim is more particular than the Notice of Claim.\u00a0 It is a document that further describes the parties and defines their relationship(s) with each other.\u00a0\u00a0The Statement of Claim\u00a0is a listing of the facts.\u00a0 In construction and engineering claims, the parties oftentimes have a formal contract.\u00a0 In general negligence claims, the parties are often in proximity such that one owes the other a legal duty \u2013 to do or not do something.<\/p>\n<p>Counsel for the plaintiff prepares a Statement of Claim that sets out the disputed issues and the claims the wronged party, the plaintiff, is making against the defendant.\u00a0 The claims would include, for example, the relief sought \u2013 what the plaintiff wants the court to award.\u00a0 This can be very general, such as claiming damages, costs, and interest.\u00a0 It does not usually state exact dollar figures.<\/p>\n<p>The Statement of Claim is served on the defendant by the plaintiff, typically through a process server who is engaged to personally hand-deliver the document to the defendant.\u00a0 The person delivering the document swears an affidavit that this was done.<\/p>\n<p>A professional engineer can assist counsel in the following ways during preparation of a Statement of Claim:\u00a0:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><em>Review narrative from the complainant for technical\u00a0evidence <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Review available evidence of lay witnesses, and other experts and specialists<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Complete the engineering investigation of the cause of the failure or accident, the technical issues and questions identified by counsel, and any follow-up investigations found to be necessary. \u00a0<\/em><em>(<\/em><em>Some preliminary engineering investigations during earlier steps in the civil litigation process would have alerted counsel as to the direction the engineering investigation\u00a0seemed to be\u00a0leading with respect to counsel&#8217;s interests)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Analyse the data gathered\u00a0during the investigations and establish the cause of the failure\u00a0or the accident\u00a0 <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Document the reasoning\u00a0leading to the identification of the cause<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>D<\/em><em>efine the technical issues between the parties as established during\u00a0the investigations\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Identify the technical facts relevant to the cause of the failure or accident<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Identify the evidence supporting the facts<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Review the Statement of Claim and confirm the correct understanding of the technical facts and issues in the claim the plaintiff is making against the defendant<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Identify parties that could be involved in the engineering failure or accident that have not been named in the Statement of Claim<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Prepare preliminary design of repair of the damaged structure\u00a0 <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Prepare preliminary estimate of the\u00a0cost of repair<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Prepare a report on the instruction of counsel describing the investigations, the data gathered, the analysis and reasoning, the findings, the conclusions, and the opinion formed<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Review the Statement of Defense, counter claims, and cross claims &#8211; and counsel&#8217;s response to these statements, and ensure correct understanding of technical facts and issues\u00a0 <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Assess the technical strengths and weaknesses of the case for the defense, the\u00a0counter claims and cross claims<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Steps in the civil litigation process.\u00a0 Published August 28, 2012<\/li>\n<li>The role of\u00a0a professional engineer\u00a0in counsel&#8217;s decision to take a case.\u00a0 Published June 26, 2012<\/li>\n<li>The role of\u00a0a professional engineer assisting counsel prepare a Notice of Claim.\u00a0 Published July 26, 2012<\/li>\n<li>Stockwood, Q.C., David, <em>Civil Litigation, A Practical Handbook<\/em>, 5th ed., 2004, Thompson Carswell<\/li>\n<li>ASCE Guidelines for Forensic Engineering Practice, 2003, American Society of Civil Engineers<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Preparing and filing a\u00a0Statement of Claim with the court &#8211;\u00a0typically along with the Notice of Claim, is\u00a0the second\u00a0of four steps collectively known as the Pleadings in the civil litigation process. A professional engineer or other expert can be\u00a0particularly valuable at &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/11\/the-role-of-a-professional-engineer-assisting-counsel-prepare-a-statement-of-claim\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}