Do you need to resolve a dispute?
Disputes can cause severe service disruption, potential financial liabilities, and reputational harm. It is therefore essential for all parties involved to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible before resorting to litigation.
However, when disputes do arise between parties there is often a need to bring in an independent expert to provide a detailed audit and assessment, and unbiased report.
How could be of service? We can provide a wide range of services from an assessment of an initial dispute through to expert witness work:
- Audit and assessment services to measure current cleaning services against industry best practice or contractual obligations
- Root cause analysis of cleaning services
- Assessment of current documentation
- Party or Single Joint Expert Witness
With 30+ years experience in domestic and commercial cleaning, auditing and assessing cleaning and hygiene standards, and issuing detailed reports to support litigation proceedings and help resolve disputes. We can assist as an independent unbiased experts at all stages of a dispute.
Expert Witness and Case Preparation
Introduction
An expert witness, professional witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have expertise and specialised knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and legally rely upon the witness’s specialised (scientific, technical or other) opinion about an evidence or fact issue within the scope of his expertise, referred to as the expert opinion.
Under the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR), an expert witness is required to be independent and address his or her expert report to the Court. A witness may be jointly instructed by both sides if the parties agree to this, especially in cases where the liability is relatively small. Under the CPR, expert witnesses are usually instructed to produce a joint statement detailing points of agreement and disagreement to assist the court or tribunal. The meeting is held quite independently of instructing lawyers, and often assists in resolution of a case, especially if the experts review and modify their opinions.
The Expert Witness can be appointed as:
- A Party Expert Witness – who is appointed and instructed by one of the Parties in a dispute
- A Single Joint Expert Witness – appointed and instructed by both parties
Case Studies
Independent Auditing of Cleaning Standards
Our independence from any manufacturer and supplier and any other company within the cleaning industry is one of our central tenets – we believe it is the only way to give truly unbiased advice. With this at heart, we were able to provide full auditing services to a couple of very large companies who had outsourced…
Why you should consider cleaning as a factor in personal liability claims
What is needed in a cleaning system? A complete cleaning system is a combination of many different parts that must work together seamlessly to meet the three most fundamental requirements of cleaning: Aesthetics, Hygiene and Safety. Most people consider the function of cleaning to be purely one of aesthetics – to remove the daily soiling…
Disputes with External Cleaning Contractors
There were two almost identical cases completely independent of each other that involved disputes between the contracting organisation and the cleaning contractors. These two cases were large multi-floor office buildings owned by two separate UK PLC’s contracting two separate cleaning companies to provide routine and ad hoc cleaning services. As both cases were effectively identical,…
Lack of Cleaning the Cause of Slip Incidents?
We were instructed to investigate the cause of a pupil slipping on a main corridor in a large school. Although the incident thankfully didn’t result in serious injuries, it was sufficiently serious to warrant a hospital visit. Unfortunately, there were no witnesses to the incident, but a number of other pupils and staff mentioned similar…
Hidden Contributory Factors in Slip Incidences
This article starts with a true[1] story about a tragic incident on a wet floor that resulted in severe head injuries and chronic mobility disabilities. This is a story which mirrors many incidences of the 1000-plus reported[2] slips on wet floors every year. Setting the Scene The story starts in a large city hospital, and as is…
Subzero food storage facility
Another facility, based in London, under went a complete new build of their cold storage of package food produce, ready to be shipped out to the customer. This facility housed one of the largest and tallest subzero food storage facility in the country at that time. The nature of our work was how to advise…
Preventing Slips and Trips in the Workplace
Slips and trips in the workplace are the most common cause of injuries, often requiring extended periods off work and repeated visits to a hospital. 90% of these cases involve broken bones, but in all cases the pain and suffering inflicted is a great financial risk for business and society as a whole. It is…
Internal Disputes Between Staff and Management
We were instructed by a prominent private school in London to ascertain the nature of complaints from suspected poor cleaning standards. It was also suspected the falling standards were because of an ongoing internal dispute. The premise of the instruction was to provide evidence of cleaning standards achieved and independently assess those observed standards against…
Surface Damage Due to Cleaning?
This next case involved a food production company who had outsourced the periodic deep clean process to an external experienced cleaning contractor. The requirement for the contractor was to supply their own cleaning chemicals, cleaning equipment and labour, and provide a deep cleaning of all food processing and handling equipment and all washable surfaces (floors,…
