Building Expert Witnesses

What is a building expert witness?

Building expert witness candidates have years of experience and expertise in building and are familiar with all phases of building code compliance, construction management, LEED certification, building inspections, fire protection, and/or HVAC/electrical/plumbing experience. Building industry expert witness candidates have expertise related to the rules and regulations that govern construction and occupancy of facilities. Building expert witness candidates will have advanced degrees (PhD, PE) in construction management, architecture, civil engineering, structural engineering, or forensic engineering. Building expert witnesses may be members of professional organizations such as the National Association of House Builders (NAHB), the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA), or the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC).

What types of cases require a building expert witness?

A building expert witness might also provide testimony in construction defects, ADA compliance, personal injury, premises liability, property damage, insurance claims, cause investigations, or building system failure analysis.

Cases may be civil or criminal and require not only building and/or construction expertise, but the ability to communicate findings to juries for ease of understanding.

Building expert witness case examples

When the need for a building expert arises, top legal professionals call on Cahn Litigation Services. The firm has placed professionals for many matters, including:

• New York fire code consulting,
• apartment fire cause,
• Utah building codes,
• New York apartment complex construction defects
• electrical safety and electrical accident investigations,
• personal injury accident investigation,
• ​emergency management,
• fire sprinkler systems failure causation in a New Jersey factory,
• forensic analysis at a Texas manufacturing facility,
• energy management at a New York facility,
• product liability investigation for California insurance companies,
• a Pennsylvania health care facility’s water heaters installation,
• failure analysis of a ventilating unit in Colorado,
• root cause analysis of industrial HVAC system failures in Florida,
• commercial building fire investigation,
• an explosion investigation in Florida, and
• fire code compliance in Michigan.

What litigation support work might a building expert witness be expected to perform?

Litigation support by a building expert witness could include research and authoring expert reports, providing expert opinions, arbitrations, building and construction consulting, accessibility analyses, forensic engineering analyses, deposition testimony, and expert testimony at a trial. In a high-profile case, or litigation involving a significant financial stake, a law firm may request an expert with prior expert witness experience. In addition, clients may seek a building expert for pre-litigation consulting work.

Cahn Litigation Services has the experience required to turn a search for a building expert witness around quickly, providing the right balance of expertise and testimony experience.

Related Disciplines

Building Expert Witness - Representative Bios

Please Note: All Cahn Litigation expert witness searches are customized to attorneys' precise specifications and preferences. Attorneys are encouraged to discuss search parameters with a Cahn search specialist.

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The below expert witness bios represent a small fraction of those Building experts known by Cahn Litigation Services. These bios are provided to give lawyers a sense of the Building landscape.

• Expert Witness #226340

  This team is a group of seasoned construction professionals providing expert witness services. Their focus is on architectural, building, construction, design and engineering forensics. To ensure proper support, the group maintains an extensive library which includes historical building codes, industry standards, published construction cost estimating guides and a wide array of other necessary resources. Each Associate has real world experience in their respective specialties, and has experience in varied construction methods including traditional, prefab, modular and other processes. All have significant testimony experience in State and Federal Courts.

  
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• Expert Witness #260531

  This expert is an AIA certified Architect with many years of architectural design and construction administration experience with all building types, including educational, medical, R&D, corporate, commercial, custom residential, multi-family housing, military and industrial projects. Emphasizing use of durable, low maintenance materials including stainless, copper, bronze, zinc, cement-fiber, plastics, composites, specialty sealants & industrial paints. This expert heads a building reconstruction and forensic investigation consultancy that provides visual inspection, intrusive testing, defect analysis, repair recommendations and forensic expert services for both plaintiff and defense parties. This expert brings to the table specialized knowledge of construction materials, industry standards, code compliance, waterproofing, vapor transmission, exterior finishes, corrosion, condensation, ventilation, mold, wood rot, suspended ceilings, interior partitions, and structural issues. This expert's experience includes thousands of visual inspections and hundreds of intrusive tests for construction defect cases, including institutional, commercial and retail structures, housing developments and private homes. This expert also provides reconstruction design, details and specifications focused on solving complex construction problems and developing effective repairs for commercial and institutional buildings.

  This expert has served as a third-party neutral construction expert for mediators, arbitrators and courts, and retained jointly by both plaintiff and defense parties. Specializing in complex construction disputes where resolution can be facilitated through clarification of technical issues and extensive case documents. Experience includes complex, multi-party commercial and institutional cases.

  
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• Expert Witness #260948

  This expert's work ranges widely, from providing expert witness testimony to overseeing research and development projects, to writing for industry publications. This expert's work has had an impact on building codes and practices throughout the world. This expert is well-published and is an acclaimed educator who has taught thousands of professionals. This expert holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering, a Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Building Science. This expert has significant testifying experience.

  
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• Expert Witness #249456

  This expert has many years of experience in building systems design, construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance. An industry leader in promoting the practice of commissioning and in developing commissioning standards, including serving as a contributing author to the AIA B291-2003 document outlining commissioning services, this expert is also the author of monthly columns in Engineered Systems magazine, and has been frequently invited to lecture at seminars given by such industry organizations as:

  -  Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA)

  -  American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE),

  -  American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC)

  This expert is nationally noted for work in the design of energy-efficient building systems. This expert has received twelve energy engineering awards for the design of building systems. The commissioning expertise of this expert and team has been recognized since its inception by their selection to provide commissioning services for some of the largest commissioning efforts underway today. This expert has developed a new process that takes the commissioning process beyond building systems start-up, to protect and optimize the owners' facilities investments throughout the life of their buildings. This process, which encompasses and extends the elements required for the LEEDTM extra credit point, assists owners with the development and implementation of a facility management business plan for new or existing buildings within the commissioning process. It also provides the building owner with proven methods, software, and other tools needed to efficiently and effectively manage the facility.

  
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• Expert Witness #259486

  This expert has many years of experience in engineering, construction, project management, and in cost/schedule analysis in the preparation and evaluation of contract claims on hundreds of projects across all market sectors.

  This expert's project experience spans the building construction, power generation, transportation, industrial, manufacturing, environmental and infrastructure sectors. This expert has provided technical dispute resolution services in mediation, and expert testimony in arbitration, deposition, and court proceedings. This expert has served as an arbitrator in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as an independent, private, and American Arbitration Association arbitrator.

  This expert has given seminar presentations on project management, claims management and CPM scheduling to various industry groups and law firms and has also been a guest lecturer.

  This expert earned Bachelor of Civil Engineering and Master of Civil Engineering degrees, and is a licensed Professional Engineer. This expert is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Construction Management Association of America and an associate member of the American Bar Association Forum on the Construction Industry.

  
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• Expert Witness #261593

  This expert is Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Computer Science, & Technology Entrepreneurship, Faculty Entrepreneurial Fellow, Excellence Faculty Fellow, and the director of a Real-time and Automated Monitoring and Control lab. This expert received a PhD degree in Civil Engineering and MS degree in Computer Science, MASc in Civil Engineering, and MS and BS in Civil Engineering.

  This expert has worked with many national and international construction companies. This expert has several patents and is currently involved with start-up companies which were founded based on the outcomes of this expert's ongoing research projects.

  This expert is CTO and founder of a construction software-as-a-service company that offers a visual command center for managing construction sites. This expert has many years of work experience in construction, virtual design and construction (VDC) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) and also the development of innovative software solutions related to BIM and VDC. This expert has more than 16 patents related to Reality Modeling in combination to BIM solutions.

  
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• Expert Witness #206958

  This expert has many years' experience with 3d modeling software in the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industries in a variety of roles. This expert was a Senior API Software Engineer on a suite of Building Information Modeling products. This expert founded a consulting firm that develops software for AEC firms worldwide using technologies including Revit, Navisworks, and SQL. Although well-schooled in the subject matter, this expert has never served as an expert witness.

  
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• Expert Witness #257419

  This expert owns and runs a busy Construction Engineering firm, with a particular focus on concrete contracting. This expert has many years of continuous experience in the industry and this expert's long-time experience in concrete contracting has led to a successful forensic analysis and testimony practice. This expert has personally performed concrete pours in matt foundations, drilled caissons, suspended slabs, post-tensioning, pre-cast, tilt-up, jump-form, slip-form, and shot-crete. This expert's engineering experience is in site development, parking structures, underground garages, shoring systems (soldier beams with tie-backs and soil nailing), deep excavations, underground utilities, schools, shored excavations, and roads.
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