What is litigation support and what is technical about it? Well it is about support given to law firms that have to litigate in court for cases related to science and technology/ engineering. Technical litigation support services are availed by attorneys and law firms who may not have the necessary experience and expertise in a certain technical field. Hence they often seek out for highly professional but affordable outsourced technical litigation support service providers who have direct access to all types of experts.
Such service providers have access to a wide range of senior scientists, engineers and technicians. Here is a list of some of the common technical litigation support areas:
Civil engineering Environmental, analytical chemistry Health and safety Epidemiology Microbiology Toxicology Remediation Mechanical projects Forensic engineering Legal animation/graphics Fire /explosion Geology Waste engineering Insurance coverage
During legal research and e-discovery for litigation, it should never happen that non-technical people may have to make technical decisions as it can directly impact our ability to litigate. Hence without hesitation one can be sure that the technical work has to be outsourced/ given to the relevant technical experts.
What are the different works that technical support personnel usually do in a legal support company? They often will have to do tasks associated with the creation and modification of huge databases / images, database administration, data manipulation and software utility creation. Depending on the type of technical support given the required expertise of support personnel can vary. Ideally expertise in computer software, database and web technology with a working knowledge of structured query language (SQL) for use with databases and knowledge of programming principles will be greatly appreciated.
It is essential that technical support firms have access to not only the industry sources but must have stock of their own in-house scientific and engineering literature in their area of specialization. Litigation support in the field of environmental litigation involves works like providing expert witness service, report preparation, evaluating environmental work, technical analyses, and the preparation of courtroom exhibits.
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