Hart Engineering - Forensic Engineering and Construction Consulting

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"Fall Down"

Slips, trips and falls occur almost 1 million times per year in the U.S. When a fall causes an injury, a person may have a Cause of Action against the property owner. A "Fall Down" is a specific type of personal injury claim that, when pursued via the legal system, is referred to as "Tort". There are four elements to a tort, all of which must be present before the court can order a remedy:

Duty: It must be shown that the defendant owed a legal duty to the victim. A duty is a legally enforceable obligation to conform to a particular standard of conduct or "standard of care."
Breach of Duty: It must be shown that the defendant failed in their duty to provide a reasonable standard of care.
Causation: If there was a breach, that breach must be shown to be the cause of the person's injuries.
Injury: There must be an injury - physical and/or financial.

However, the root causes of the accident and whether or not the injured is entitled to "damages" from the defendant, based on the four elements listed above, is often disputed.

Hart Engineering is not exclusively a Plaintiff's or a Defendant's engineer. Hart provides an independent third party investigation and analysis of the alleged incident using sound forensic engineering principles. Hart typically presents its findings in an expert report format that is thorough and detailed; yet, concise enough to be easily understood and persuasive to the trier of fact.

Inflatable Amusements

Inflatable amusements can be dangerous. It is estimated that, in the United States, more than 30 children are treated every day in hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with inflatable bouncers. In addition to the bouncers, there are injuries from other inflatable amusements including slides and obstacle courses. The causes of these injuries can include the following:

Tethering and anchoring
Site selection and inspection
Cleanliness and housekeeping
Adequacy of supervision

Because these causes are mostly preventable, the injuries are often the subject of legal action. Hart Engineering investigates these inflatable amusement accidents when the injuries are serious. We are retained on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants to investigate the circumstances surrounding the accident. We rely on this accident reconstruction as well as our knowledge of the industry standard of care to render an opinion as to how actions or inactions by those involved were contributory to the accident.

Other Personal Injury

There are of course a myriad of potential causes of personal injuries. Hart Engineering has been retained on many personal injury claims. What these claims have in common, regardless of whether you are plaintiff or defendant, is the need for an independent third party forensic engineer who provides a detailed and thorough, technically-based expert report. Hart Engineering has won the praise of clients for just such reports.