[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by 44 AMP

While this is one of the great strengths of our system, it is ALSO one of the greatest potential flaws.

Too true.

For example: I was an expert witness in a civil case a number of years ago. It was before a judge, not a jury, but both sides presented expert witnesses. The case involved a fire that destroyed roughly two-thirds of a condominium building. I was a witness for the defendant, which was a plumbing company whose worker started the fire while soldering a valve in a bathroom wall. The heart of the case was that the construction of the building was severely deficient, with firestopping missing in critical locations. That's what allowed the fire to escape the unit under repair and take out most of the building.

I'm an architect and a code expert. I introduced (through the written report I had done) plans showing that the bathroom in question backed up against the kitchen of an adjoining unit, and that the kitchen wall had a huge gap because of the way soffits above the kitchen cabinets were framed and constructed.

The other side's "expert" was a plumber, who testified that the bathroom where the fire started back up against a bathroom in an adjoining unit. That "expert" had never seen plans of the building, and had never been in any of the units other than the one in which the fire started. Nonetheless, he was certain that the bathroom backed up against another bathroom.

Despite having plans and photographs documenting that the bathroom did, in fact, abut a kitchen, the judge determined that the bathroom backed up against another bathroom, because plumbers know more about bathrooms than architects.

Yes, this is a true story. My great-grandfather was a professor of law. He quit private practice and went into teaching because (as related by my grandfather, his student) "There's no justice in the courts."