Expert Witness Features – page 5

Bugs and gremlins: who takes the rap?

TONY SYKES of The IT Group has been instructed in many groundbreaking IT disputes. Here he sets out some observations and opinions on the types of disputes, why they occur, and gives some practical advice on how to manage the cost of expert assistance.

FORENSIC COMPUTER analysis and early document review can sometimes seem expensive in the early stages of an IT dispute; but in reality, in many cases, the really high costs occur later in the process and having the results of forensic computer analysis and a well researched expert opinion on the documents and disclosure can lead to huge savings in the long run.

DNA: what it shows and what it doesn’t

Dr ANDREI SEMIKHODSKI of Medical Genomics Ltd looks at some statistical misconceptions THE PROBATIVE value of DNA evidence is reflected by the value of the probability of a random match between DNA profiles from the crime scene sample and the accused.

Any probabilistic approach introduces uncertainly into the interpretation of scientific evidence which, if not properly understood, can give rise to misunderstanding of the evidence and inaccurate conclusions as to what the evidence really means. Some of those errors affect the way random match probability is calculated; others affect how DNA data is interpreted in court.

Do you know what your fire risk is?

by GARY WHITWORTH FIFireE FIFSM FIMgt MIFPO MIIRSM Dip CFPA[Europe], IFSM-accredited fire risk assessor and registered expert witness.

THE REGULATORY Reform [Fire Safety] Order 2005 (known briefly as ‘the RRO’) came into force on 1 October 2006. The delay in its introduction was due mainly to the availability of a large number of Guidance Documents which covered the whole range of different types of property embraced by the legislation: offices, shops, factories, warehouses, sleeping accommodation (including flats), residential care premises, educational premises, small and medium-sized places of assembly (including places of worship), large places of assembly, theatres, cinemas and similar premises, open air events and venues, healthcare premises and transport premises. There are very few properties outside the scope of the Act; they include ‘single private dwellings’, ‘aircraft’, ‘locomotives or rolling stock’, ‘mines (other than buildings on the surface of a mine)’, ‘borehole sites’, ‘offshore installations’ and ‘ships and normal ship-board activities’.

Gun law in the UK

by DAVID DYSON

THE MOST DRAMATIC changes to firearms legislation in the UK in recent times were totally reactive, resulting from public outrage following the murderous sprees of Michael Ryan in Hungerford and Thomas Hamilton in Dunblane. The recent tragic events in Cumbria have once again thrown firearms legislation into the forefront of public scrutiny; whether further restriction will follow once again remains to be seen.

Dangerous driving: often the driver is also the victim of circumstance

by JOHN McGLINCHEY of Forensic Engineering Solutions

GET CONVICTED of Dangerous Driving Causing Death, and you’re off to jail.

When you get there, roadsafety pressure-groups will lament the apparent leniency of your sentence and quote statistics about the death toll on the roads and the effect of the bereavement on the immediate families.