I got into Expert Witness work when I was working at a marine consultancy company based in London. I was involved with an incident on on an oil rig on the West Coast of Australia. It eventually sank with no loss of life. My boss was on holiday at the time, so I was drafted in to help out with the insurance claim. I was then that I realized I could make business out of using my expertise to advise on claims.
Wide-ranging cases
Working as an Expert Witness has been a highly enjoyable part of my career: it’s a new application of meteorology.
I get involved in cases all over the world and it’s totally random where the work is. I’ve found myself working on a case on the Thames Estuary one day, and the straits of Taiwan the next.
I get a lot of work in the marine industry, thanks to my background in marine consultancy. Those cases are usually to do with an insurance company who has rejected the claim, so I usually get brought on board late in a case.
But I work on a variety of cases from hull and cargo damage at sea, to road traffic accidents, and personal injury incidents.
There are only a couple of other experts in my field who do it as a business and I’ve got where I am by word of mouth. The same solicitors tend to use my services – anything to do with the weather, they call on me!
Always prepared
Typically, I’m brought on board a case five years or so after the event. Weather data isn’t available historically, so I make a point of downloading data that’s available in real time every day and storing it. 99.9% of it never reaches the light of day – but the tiny bit that does is invaluable. I’m proud to say that I believe my data sources to be superior to anyone else’s!
Key challenges
As you can imagine, the data sources in meteorology are vast. Most is circulated worldwide and then it gets overwritten after two weeks. So, there’s a small window in which to download the data and store it in a way that’s useful. It’s a manual process which takes me two to three hours a day, every day.
Preparing for court
Most of my cases settle out of court, though I do usually end up going a couple of times a year. Heading to court requires a lot of preparation and getting my ducks in a row. There are some very clever barristers around and I’m aware that their aim is to discredit me.
I always make sure I’ve covered all bases and am across all the data that’s available. Ultimately, I remind myself that I know more about my subject than the barrister who is questioning me. I’m the expert, after all!
Changing times
There is so much expertise in meteorology, but it’s not been applied to the Expert Witness industry. I don’t know who will fulfil on expert roles like mine in the future. The Met Office have removed themselves from the role completely – they’ll provide data, but wouldn’t support as Expert Witnesses.
I was brought up through the weather forecasting networks. It’s different now – there aren’t many weather forecasters in employment; it’s all computer specialists. It’s very difficult to get that experience without coming up through the network.
Making an impact
One case I worked on that really stands out was when I worked on an insurance claim for a ship in a port in Japan. The port was getting battered by a storm and the ship ended up on the dock. It was a total loss and, thanks to my Expert advice, the company was able to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. Sadly, though, my fees don’t come anywhere near that!
Maintaining independence
As an Expert Witness, my responsibility is to the court – not to the people who are paying the money. Sometimes I tell the ‘wrong’ story! But the solicitors understand that I must be independent.