Expert Witness / Litigation Support

Litigation related to environmental due diligence, the occurrence of environmental contaminants, defining environmental cleanup objectives, and the performance environmental remediation is now commonplace and the technical issues in many such litigation matters can be highly complex. SMA’s scientists, hydrogeologists, and engineers, have extensive experience in providing clients and their legal counsel a thorough understanding of the relevant technical aspects of such litigation.

Many litigation matters involve tort claims, and/or diminution of property value claims, and as a result, require a scientific evaluation of causation and timing of occurrence. SMA’s scientists and hydrogeologists bring a high degree of expertise and experience to the evaluation of causation, and of the scientific criteria appropriate to apply to such evidence. Our engineers and environmental scientists can unravel and make clear the complex problem of understanding occurrence and migration of contaminants through complex pathways in the subsurface. Several SMA scientists and engineers have extensive expertise in soil and groundwater modeling to simulate these complex pathways to provide a basis for causation. Exposure reconstruction–the development of an understanding of exposures individuals claiming injury have incurred in the past–is an example of how the modeling has been utilized for testimony in the past.

SMA has also assisted clients in understanding the testimony offered by other experts and in identifying aspects of such testimony that may not be based upon sound scientific data or methodology. In addition, several SMA senior staff members have served as expert witnesses or expert consultants on several projects.

Model provided courtesy of CTech Development Corp.www.ctech.com