a) Hired Gun
An unscrupulous (unprincipled, crooked, immoral) engineer
• Makes his living by helping lawyers to portray facts in favour of their clients
• Never tries to be objective
• Violates standards of honesty and care in conducting investigations
• Overall a shame on engineering community
b) Financial Bias
The expert witness is biased to the party which pays more money
The bias increases substantially when payments are agreed as Contingency Fee to be
Paid only in case the hirer wins the case Full time forensic engineers, being dependent on lawyers for their living, try to create a reputation of a winning engineer.
c) Ego Bias
Competitive attitudes, being on one side of the disputing parties makes an expert,
Egoistic and makes him influence judgments They start identifying themselves with their side of the dispute
d) Sympathy Bias
The plight of the victims and their sufferings can invoke sympathy from the expert witness
This upsets impartial investigation of facts
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