Expert witness services | UTC Singapore
& accident / fire investigation
for litigation & insurance claims

What is Expert Witness Services

Expert witness is a person with scientific, technical, engineering or other specialised knowledge based on training, study or experience. Expert witness can be engineers, scientists, consultants, doctors and other professions with extensive relevant knowledge. The key of the expert witness services is Competence, Experience and Qualification of EXPERT himself, not organization he is from.

UTC accident expert and fire expert with extensive relevant experience were engaged by government agencies (MOM, SCDF, ESG, PUB), MNCs and insurance companies for investigating a number of high profile accident and fire cases in Singapore, lecturing "Vehicle Fire Investigation" for LTA and testifying in Singapore court as fire expert witness and accident expert witness. UTC expert had been featured in Straits Times and MediaCorp TV programs in Singapore for failure analysis and accident investigation.

What is Effective Expert Witness

The criteria for effective expert witness are whether his accident investigation report and expert opinions are fully accepted and adopted by the Court and Judge in litigation, and the report conclusions and expert opinions shall be relevant & critical to the litigation. Only the conclusions and opinions provided by more competent expert witness will be accepted and adopted by the Court and Judge when there are disagreements.

• Expert witness must know his duties to the Court overriding any other duties.
• Expert witness must be honest, objective and impartial.
• Expert witness shall have sufficient relevant experience, training and qualification.
• When requested, expert witness shall submit the accident investigation report with clear conclusions supported by enough facts, evidences and proven scientific principles.
• In Court hearing, expert witness shall present his testimony in a clear and convincing manner.

UTC's Expert Witness Services

UTC's forensic investigation / reconstruction experts with extensive relevant experience beyond Singapore provide high quality, reliable, fast and cost effective forensic investigation and reconstruction services to determine accident causes, reconstruct accident processes and recommend preventive measures, and acting as accident expert witness or fire expert witness testifying in Singapore Court.

UTC's expert witness services and accident investigation services had been well recognized by Singapore government agencies (e.g. SCDF, MOM, PUB, RSAF, ESG (ex-SPRING), LTA) and many MNCs (e.g. Hyundai Korea, Takenaka Japan, China Rail Tunnel Group, AIG, MSIG Insurance, Rajah & Tann (Lawyer Firm), WongPartnership (Lawyer Firm), NTUC Health, Universal Terminal (Oil and Gas), SEMCO Marine).

UTC's experts, providing relevent expert witness services and accident investigation reports, had been proven and accepted by High Court, State Court, Criminal Court and Arbitration Court.

UTC's experts are capable and competent to act as fire expert witness, accident expert witness, traffic expert witness, crane expert witness and failure analysis expert witness in legal and technical litigations.

To contact UTC forensic investigation experts for expert witness services, please click EMAIL:enquiry@ut.sg or Call (+65)81380509.

Accident Types Related to Expert Witness
There are different types of accidents, including industrial accidents, work related accidents, machinery related accidents, traffic accidents, fire accidents. These accidents are potentially resulting litigation and Court cases, and may required to engage expert witness.

• Industrial accident investigation, refer to Forensic industrial accident investigation services.
• Traffic accident reconstruction, refer to Traffic accident reconstruction services.
• Fire investigation, refer to Fire investigation services.
• Crane accident investigation, please click CRANE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION

OBJECTIVE: Support the party with financial difficulty for pursuing deserved justification in accident litigation.

AID MODE: Up to 100% or partial professional fee of accident reconstruction & investigation will NOT be payable until winning or favouablly settling down the litigation case.

TERMS & CONDITIONS:

UTC to assess relevant party's financial status;

Expert witness to review available information to assess the accident case conditions.

Expert witness to receive the case update timely and participate all necessary actions when needed.

NOTE: Professional fee for accident investigation and reconstruction is fully claimable when winning or favouablly settling down the litigation case.

UTC's scientific and engineering experts had recently been engaged for following expert witness services:

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A heavy gate toppled at construction site in Singapore during installation by a engineering company and caused a worker death. UTC's experts were engaged by Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for accident investigation and failure analysis, then appointed as construction expert witness or accident investigation expert witness in this court case. UTC expert witness had successfully discovered the root causes of the accident and testified in the court hearing, provided solid evidences with scientific methodology. UTC's expert witness' testimony and opinions had been accepted by the court.

The court accepted UTC expert witness's conclusions and ruled that the contractor was fined S$280,000 for fatal gate toppling. The contractor filed appeal, but lost the appeal and punishment was increased from S$280,000 to S$330,000 for fatal gate toppling, reported by Straits Times.

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One crane collapsed in a construction site in Singapore during lifting operation, which severely damaged the nearby plant facilities and workshop. China Taiping Insurance engaged UTC's experts to independantly investigate the accident and as crane expert witness in lawsuit at Singapore High Court (Supreme Court). UTC's expert witness successfully determined the root causes of the accident. Shortly after receiving UTC's expert witness report, the case was settled favourably to our client before court hearing.

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High profile fire accident case -
The litigation case "Building cladding (aluminium composite panel -ACP) fire at Toh Guan Road" was filed in Singapore High Court.
UTC's expert is engaged as fire expert witness to conduct fire investigation and assist the Court for determining the fire cause and liabilities of relevant parties. Shortly after receiving UTC's expert witness report, the case was settled favourably to our client before court hearing.

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High profile crane accident case -
Fatal accident of tower crane collapse during lifting process in construction site at National Art Gallery of Singapore filed in Singapore Arbitration Court.
The value of this litigation was up to 10 millions SGD. Several personnel died or injury in the case. Crane major parts such as boom, bearings, shafts, polleys, wire ropes, counter balance block and bolts were severely damaged. UTC's experts were engaged to investigate the root cause(s) of the accident and appointed as crane expert witness by Takenaka. The case was settled down in favour of our client shortly after UTC's expert witness report was issued.
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Traffic accident happened during a cyclist overtaking a car. Expensive bicycle was damaged and cyclist was injured. Who shall be responsible for this accident? This task was handed over to the court.
UTC had investigated and reconstructed the accident, engaged as traffic expert witness for testifying in the court.
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Prime mover collided ISO tank and resulted in worker death. The company involved was prosecuted in criminal court. UTC expert was engaged as expert witness to independently investigate and reconstruct the accident.

Expert witness services may be required in litigation proceedings including Courts and tribunals to assist them in reaching a decision and justifications when the Courts require opinion(s) of scientific, technical, engineering, safety or other specialised knowledge (i.e. expert evidence). Expert witness provides expert opinions and evidences in their testimony mostly based on forensic investigation or analysis on the subject as well as scientific knowledge. They are called litigation expert witness or insurance expert witness or claim expert witness if related to insurance claims.

Engaging expert witness services in the legal, insurance and industrial sectors as well as government agencies for assistance in settling lawsuits, litigations, arbitrations, safety related prosecution, construction disputes and insurance claims is common practice in many countries, including Singapore.

Forensic accident investigation is often needed for litigation and insurance claims. Forensic accident investigation is a systematic process of collection and analysis of information, data and evidences relating to incidents or accidents (including traffic accidents, industrial accidents, fire accidents etc.) which led to the loss of property, time or health of individuals, or even lives. Incident or accident happens in many ocassions such as workplaces, transportation, amusement, etc. Expert witness services are often followed forensic accident investigation.

Expert witness’ duties are to assist the courts and tribunals for providing expert opinions, reliable evidences and scientific knowledge. These duties overrides any other duties to the person instructing or paying him. Expert witness must be independent and unbiased during litigation processes.

Expert witness should consider all relevant facts, materials and evidences presented to the Court, and then advise the Court on the areas where fault lies and where liability rests, including those that may diminish his/her opinion. Expert witness provides opinions on matters that lie only within his/her expertise, states the literature or materials they relied on in forming their opinions, as well as experiment results and methodology used. When necessary, the expert witness is called to give evidence under oath. It is also frequently necessary for the expert witness to meet with other expert witness appointed by other parties and resolve where they agree and disagree on the merits of the case.

The types of expert witnesses are depending on the nature and needs of the case. Following types of experts may be called to Court(s) for expert witness services:

• Forensic accident investigation and failure analysis expert(s) in civil or crime cases.
• Forensic scene reconstruction expert(s) in crime or civil cases.
• Mechanical, electrical, chemical, material, corrosion, construction, aircraft, marine and structure related eingineering expert(s) in industrial litigation cases, are called engineering expert witness generally or mechanical expert witness, electrical expert witness, chemical expert witness, material expert witness, corrosion expert witness, constructuction expert witness, aircraft expert witness, marine expert witness, structure expert witness respectively.
• Metallurgy expert in metals and alloys related litigations, i.e. metallurgy expert witness.
• Fire investigation expert in fire realted litigations,.i.e. fire expert witness.
• Safety expert in workplace accident lawsuits, or called safety expert witness.
• Medical expert(s) in cases of personal injury or medical negligence claims.
• Transportation expert(s) in vehicle or train or ship related accident / incident, i.e. transportation expert witness or traffic expert witness.
• Crane expert in litigation on crane toppling or collapse,.i.e crane expert witness.
• Account expert(s) in finance related cases.
• Computer expert(s) in cases relating to confidential digital data and cybersecurity.
• Handwriting expert(s) in cases relating to document forgery.

The objectives of appointing an expert witness is to tap on the expert’s specialised knowledge and skills to assist the Court in understanding specific topics of interest. Expert witness is in the unique and privileged position to express expert opinions in his area of specialisation to

Determine the root cause(s) of incident/accidents and failures

Discover relevant facts and reliable evidence

Provide sound professional opinions

Assist court to decide liabilities of involved parties

Companies involved in accidents/incidents

Companies involved in product disputes

Personal involved in accidents/incidents

Government agencies for law enforcement

Insurance companies handling claiming from other companies or individuals

Each party of the case are often appointed their own expert witness. Expert witness(es) provide their own evidences in support of their own case and can also test the opponent’s expert witness’s evidence under cross-examination.

Alternatively, a joint expert witness can be appointed by both parties of one case to give expert evidence on behalf of both parties. This procedure is used in a simplified process or small amount of fund disputed to reduce parties’ costs.

In addition, the court may, at any time, on its own motion or on an application by one of the parties, appoint an independent court expert witness to give opinion(s) on some technical issue(s).

• Product quality dispute
• Industrial accidents
• Fire and explosion incidents
• Asset and facility failures
• Traffic accidents
• Construction and working site accidents
• Ship and marine related accidents
• Crane, lifting equipment and wire rope related accidents
• Aircraft component failures including landing gear, engine turbine blade, vene
• Building and structure related litigation
• Other engineering related accident

Other expert areas, please refer to


• Failure analysis and forensic investigation
• Crane accident investigation and failure analysis
• Forensic accident investigation and analysis.
• Traffic accident reconstruction and investigation.
• Corrosion engineering
• Fire investigation.
• Condition assessment
• Design and structural analysis
• Industrial technical training courses:
1. Industrial Failure Analysis - Investigation, causes, mechanisms and prevention
2. Applied Metallurgy - Compositions, microstructure, process and properties of metals and alloys
3. Corrosion - mechanisms, investigation and prevention
4. Fire Investigation
5. Structual analysis in design and failure investigation
6. Human factors in design and accident investigation

Our key experts had provided failure analyis, accident investigation, fire investigation and expert witness services to regional countries and beyond, including Singapore, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korean, The Netherland, Italy, etc.

More details of Recognitions of UTC's experts, please click RECOGNITIONS.

Qualifications and accreditation

PhD in relevant disciplines/areas

Fellow of Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES)

Chartered Engineer in relevant areas (UK)

Member, National Association of Fire Investigators (USA)

Certified Pressure vessel inspector API 510 (American Petroleum Institute)

Expert/Technical Assessor of Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC)

Executive committee member of The Institute of Materials (East Asia)

Accomplished thousands of relevant projects.

Outstanding performance

UTC's experts had been appointed as expert witness by a number of industries and government agencies including Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Ministry of Transport (MOT), China Taiping Insurance, Rajah & Tann, WongPartnership, Universal Terminal, and Takenaka (Japan), KSL, CENTRA JAYA (S) and Netto & Magin LLC etc.

A number of technical articles published in international journals and conferences, e.g. Forensic investigation on crane accidents, published in International Journal on Forensic Engineering, Vol.3 No 4, 2017

Expert witness reports and conclusions accepted by Court(s), e.g The judge’s statement: “The analysis report was not challenged. It was clearly at the odds ...”, Extracted from High Court Judgement in “Singapore Law watch” (2011) and Singaporelaw.sg (MovingU Pte Ltd vs. Trans-cab Service Pte Ltd) (Clause 27).

Recognition by governments, e.g. Dr Yu's contributions in investigating major MRT disruptions, and as expert witness testifying during Committee Of Inquiry (COI), as shown in COI Report – Ministry of Transportation 2012, Page 134

UTC's expert Dr George YU correctly determined the root cause of massive MRT breakdowns on July 7, 2015, featured in Top views of The Straits Times, Top of News, 30 July 2015.

UTC's expert Dr George YU had been featured in Mediacorp TV program for sharing accident investigation.

Recognition feedback from clients, e.g. DSTA procurement manager' email: “SAF has cooperated with UTC several times previously and UTC has proven to be capable of fulfilling our requirements. We are very satisfied with UTC's performance.”

Proven cost effective expert witness and investigator

UTC's experts and relevant services are highly competitive, which are demonestrated in markets, e.g. in Gebiz tenders, UTC was awarded many projects such as:

MOM, Investigation on fatal gate toppling at construction site and testifying as expert witness in Criminal Court.

SCDF, Period contract of accident investigation (2015-2018).

SCDF, Period contract of accident investigation (2019-2020)

LTA, Conduct training course “Vehicle Fire Investigation” (3 runs)

SPRING, Investigation on explosion of storage water heater (potential as expert witness)

Enterprise SG, Investigation on liquid dispenser fire (potential as expert witness)

RSAF, Investigation on unmanned aerial vehicle structure fracture

RSAF, Investigation on aircraft brake bolt failure

SCDF, Investigation on taxi fire and explosion near Buona Vista MRT (potential as expert witness)

SCDF, Forensic investigation on taxi fire @ Maymount Road(potential as expert witness)

PUB – 1 year contract for failure analysis and damage investigation

To ensure the expert witness' evidence(s) and opinion(s) be accepted by the court(s), it is crucial to select right analyst or investigator for expert witness.

Requirements of effective expert witness

The expert witness shall be able to take a comprehensive approach, covering a large spectrum of disciplines, to derive the correct cause(s) of failures or accidents.

The expert witness shall have traceable track records and credential(s) which are accepted to the court(s).

The expert witness shall have rich experience as expert witness.

The expert witness shall be proven and successful in convincing Judge(s) during testifying in the court(s).

Cost vs. quality of expert witness

Effectiveness of failure analysis and/or accident investigation can be evaluated from following aspects:

Ineffective expert witness - the expert evidence(s) and opinion(s) are NOT accepted by the court(s). No matter how cheap of this kind of expert witness, they are NO value or even negative value.

Price comparison must be based on the same level of experience and track records of expert witness(es).

Cost effective expert witness

First of all, the expert evidence and opinions shall be able to be accepted by the court(s).

Secondly, the price of the expert witness shall be competitive.

The expert witness service and price must be open market proven, demonstrated in GeBiz government tenders

The track record of expert witness with expert evidence and opinions acceptd by the court(s)

Traceable track records of expert witness

Basic qualifications

Education

Accreditation

Experience

Outstanding performance

Publications in international journals and conferences

Acceptance showing in Court statements

News paper reporting

Positive peer review on analysis or investigation report/conclusions

Recognition feedback from clients

Recently, UTC had published articles on failure analysis and accident investigation as follows:

"Forensic investigation on crane accidents" was published in International Journal on Forensic Engineering in 2017.

• "Letter to the Editor: A case study on engineering failure analysis of link chain" in Journal of Safety and Health at Work, 2021


• "Improving quality and reliabity through effective failure analysis" was presented in Symposium on Materials Processing, Inspection and Testing held on August 24, 2017, Malaysia.

Click HERE to read more the presentation report.

UTC's expert as transportation expert witness in Public hearing on major MRT disruptions (mechanical, fracture, damage, material, corrosion in rail and other system)

As crane expert witness in State court trial on crane toppling (mechanical, operation, structural stabiity, defects in control system)

As fire expert witness for fatal building fire in High Court

As electrical expert witness in High court trial on damages of printer in Cab / Taxi (component damage, PCB board malfunction)

As crane expert witness in Arbitration Court on fatal tower crane collapse (boom fracture, wire rope breakag, bearing damage, building damage)

As construction expert witness in Criminal Court trial on fatal construction accident (mechanical design, installation, structural stability, safety & risk assessment)

• Introduction of Singapore legal system
• Who is Expert Witness and How to Use Expert Evidence
• Concurrent expert evidence in court proceeding
• Claims against expert witness
• Criminal Procedure Code- witness allowance
• Expert witness duties
• Expert witness negligience
• hot-tubbing in court hearing for expert witness
• Responsibilities of witnesses in litigations
• Rules of arbitration procedure
• Industrial arbitration court - hearing
• Small claim tribunals Bill

• To check court hearing schedule in Supreme Court Supremecourt hearing list
• To Check court hearing schedule for criminal trials in State Courts Criminal trial list in State Courts
• Civil trials in State Courts
• Crime and court news reported by Straits Times
• Judgements by Singapore International Commercial Court
• Supreme Court Judgements
• Frasers Commercial Trust proposed merger of FLT and FCOT
• e-litigations
• Shipping Company Ocean Tankers Placed Under Court-Appointed Supervisor