Write short notes on: a) Hired Guns, b) Financial Bias, c) Ego Bias and ,d) Sympathy Bias

a) Hired Gun

An unscrupulous (unprincipled, crooked, immoral) engineer

• Makes his living by helping lawyers to portray facts in favour of their clients

• Never tries to be objective

• Violates standards of honesty and care in conducting investigations

• Overall a shame on engineering community

b) Financial Bias

The expert witness is biased to the party which pays more money

The bias increases substantially when payments are agreed as Contingency Fee to be

Paid only in case the hirer wins the case Full time forensic engineers, being dependent on lawyers for their living, try to create a reputation of a winning engineer.

c) Ego Bias

Competitive attitudes, being on one side of the disputing parties makes an expert,

Egoistic and makes him influence judgments They start identifying themselves with their side of the dispute

d) Sympathy Bias

The plight of the victims and their sufferings can invoke sympathy from the expert witness

This upsets impartial investigation of facts