Dispute Resolution and Expert Witness
Independent, Informed, Fair and Reasonable

Since Information Systems (IS) is a complex field and people are people, disputes about various IS matters inevitably arise.

IS Dispute Resoluton
If it is not a criminal matter, a common sense approach to resolving a dispute can be more timely and cost effective than litigation through the legal system. An independant and informed facilitator with proven knowledge and expertise about the subject matter can often add real value. 

Subject to there being a willingness by the parties involved, i&A facilitates IS dispute resolution with independant analysis and advice to determine a fair and reasonable outcome.

IS Expert Witness
Ian Howard is available and qualified to act as an IS Expert Witness. In this role Ian has been called upon to provide an 'expert opinion' about various IS matters and has been involved in the preparation for a number of cases, some of which went to court. In this regard Ian has appeared and been acknowledged as an Expert Witness in the Information Systems field by the Auckland High Court.

According to wikipedia "An expert witness or professional witness is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially (and legally) rely upon the witness's specialized (scientific, technical or other) opinion about an evidence or fact issue within the scope of their expertise, referred to as the expert opinion, as an assistance to the fact-finder.

Expert witnesses may also deliver expert evidence about facts from the domain of their expertise. At times, their testimony may be rebutted with a learned treatise, sometimes to the detriment of their reputations."

To assist understanding about the role of an expert witness in court, here are the "High Court Rules - Schedule 4, Code of Conduct for expert witnesses" in New Zealand:

"Duty to the Court

1.  An expert witness has an overriding duty to assist the Court impartially on relevant matters within the expert's area of expertise.

2. An expert witness is not an advocate for the party who engages the witness.

Evidence of expert witness

3. In any evidence given by an expert witness, the expert witness must:

(a) acknowledge that the expert witness has read this Code of Conduct and agrees to comply with it;

(b) state the expert witness' qualifications as an expert;

(c) state the issues the evidence of the expert witness addresses and that the evidence is within the expert's area of expertise;

(d) state the facts and assumptions on which the opinions of the expert witness are based;

(e) state the reasons for the opinions given by the expert witness;

(f) specify any literature or other material used or relied on in support of the opinions expressed by the expert witness;

(g) describe any examinations, tests, or other investigations on which the expert witness has relied and identify, and give details of the qualifications of, any person who carried them out.

4. If an expert witness believes that his or her evidence or any part of it may be incomplete or inaccurate without some qualification, that qualification must be stated in his or her evidence.

5. If an expert witness believes that his or her opinion is not a concluded opinion because of insufficient research or data or for any other reason, this must be stated in his or her evidence.

Duty to confer

6. An expert witness must comply with any direction of the Court to:

(a) confer with another expert witness;

(b) try to reach agreement with the other expert witness on matters within the field of expertise of the expert witnesses;

(c) prepare and sign a joint witness statement stating the matters on which the expert witnesses agree and the matters on which they do not agree, including the reasons for their disagreement.

7. In conferring with another expert witness, the expert witness must exercise independent and professional judgment and must not act on the instructions or directions of any person to withhold or avoid agreement."

Invitation: Contact Us if you would like to take this further.

Prosperity flows from consistently doing the Right Thing at the Right Time in the Right Way. i&A Services include: Independent IT Reviews Sounding Board Sessions and Mentoring Presentations and Workshops for Strategic Planning and Operations Facilitating RFPs for Information Systems Procurement Project and Programme Management Systems Implementation Contract CIOs Dispute Resolution  i&A Tools: Self Employed Checklist Business Templates Central Billing System The Art of Getting IT Right   Virtual Organisation Guidelines