With all the increased demands on today's civil engineering--massive economic and infrastructure development, risk-laden design and construction technique, rushed delivery schedules, inflated public expectations--the possibility of project failure increases, as does litigation that results. WRS engineers find themselves regularly called in to advise clients on forensic engineering related to hydrologic and hydraulic engineering. Services may include visiting an incident site to collect data or conduct tests, engineering investigation and determination of underlying failure causes, rendering opinions and offering testimony in judicial proceedings, assisting in preparing interrogatories or other expert opinion, reviewing other professionals' investigations or testimony, or providing additional background information.

Effective litigation consulting naturally begins with expertise in both the regulatory requirements at issue, but also the routine of civil proceedings. Objectivity and honesty are the base requirements, naturally, but we find that our experience in teaching (three of our staff are university-level educators) is critical to our success as expert witnesses. Successful legal consulting requires the ability to break down complex and multidisciplinary technical information into accessible and understandable presentations.