In contentious Construction Litigation and Arbitration, Expert Witnesses are employed to assist the Court or Arbitral Tribunal with matters that fall outside the Tribunal’s area of professional expertise.

The Expert Witness provides the Judge or Arbitrator with opinion evidence based on his or her particular expertise and experience in his or her chosen area of professional practice and must be wholly independent of the Parties and impartial in the matter in dispute. An Expert Witness has no financial or other interest in the outcome of the dispute despite being retained by one of the Parties to give evidence and gives his or her honestly held opinion based on his or her appreciation and understanding of the facts and issues in dispute. Thus, the Expert’s duty is to the Tribunal and not to his or her Client.

At OCCCC, we employ the highest standards of professional ethics and integrity and our experts are professionally trained to act in the capacity of Expert Witness. Our expert witnesses abide by the Code of Practice for Expert Witnesses laid down by the RICS.
OCCCC act for Construction Clients by providing the following services:-

• Independent Expert Witness Reports.

• Oral evidence in Court or Arbitral Proceedings. 

Appointments to act as an Independent Expert Witness are made by Solicitors and the costs involved represent part of the Legal Costs of any proceedings however, despite this, the payment terms and conditions of appointment are normally agreed with the Client directly.

Not all experts prove to be good expert witnesses as some can break down under fierce cross-examination. A good Expert Witness will not only possess the qualities of an expert but who will prove to be an expert communicator, whose judgment is sound and who is comfortable with his or her report and testimony and who can deliver a wholly objective opinion that will be fully supported and which will be of assistance to the Court or Tribunal.  In circumstances where new information comes to light then the Expert Witness will need to be able to deal with these changing circumstances and respond appropriately. 

Brian M. O’Connor has received specialist training as an Expert Witness by La-Touche Training in conjunction with the SCSI. Mr. O’Connor’s expertise in report writing and in providing oral evidence in Arbitral Proceedings has been developed over many years and has been recognised by Main Contractors, Sub-Contractors and Construction Lawyers alike as being of a very high quality.

Brian M. O’Connor has been appointed by Construction Lawyers - Solicitors in Litigation and pending Litigation and by Liquidators and Construction Employers in Arbitration. Mr. O’Connor has also acted for Construction Client’s in Conciliation in the capacity of Quantum Expert embracing Contract Administration, Quantity Surveying Practice incorporating Forensic Quantity Surveying, Delay and Disruption Analysis and also Programming / Scheduling matters.

Mr. O’Connor has given Expert evidence in Arbitral proceedings where he has been subjected to cross-examination by Senior Counsel. Mr. O’Connor has been involved in several high profile cases where the Court Proceedings (Commercial Court) or Arbitral Proceedings were settled either immediately prior to him taking the stand or during the course of his expert testimony.

This experience of acting in the capacity of Independent Expert Witness in Construction Disputes in the past makes Mr. O’Connor a most suitable candidate to fulfil this role in the future.