Cell Site Evidence – Court in a Trap

So, after a difficult and demanding eighteen months one of our experts has just gone off on a well-deserved short holiday, only to be questioned by a Judge as to his holiday location. While we fully appreciate the demands placed on the Judge in order to keep the court running, this is sometimes a difficult situation to avoid.

When an expert is instructed for a case, the work is generally placed with an expert who is available for the duration of that trial, however, as you know some trials last for a significant amount of time so this is not possible when running a business.  Many trials overlap, you don’t know what date you will need an expert to attend Court usually until the trial has been underway for some time. When our experts are called to give evidence, they are often told once they arrive at court that they will not be needed until tomorrow. A significant waste of both time and public money unfortunately.

The Judge in this particular case did question why the expert had booked a holiday when he had a case at trial. Well due to the nature of the work that we do, and also the lack of qualified cell site experts, this particular expert usually has many trials running at the same time so unfortunately there is sometimes a clash. On the rare occasions that this does happen then another expert can adopt the work and give evidence on the case. We have been questioned as to how quickly another expert would be ‘up to speed’ with a new case. The answer is that all of our work is peer reviewed, so the person who has peer reviewed the work would be in a good position to give evidence at court if required at late notice.

When we are instructed by the defence we are often not informed when our report has been served on the prosecution. Many defence reports are never served so the expert would never be required to give evidence in these cases.

Footprint Investigations have five cell site analysis experts in house, along with a significant support team of analysts who assist them.  We have been established for over 10 years and there has never been an occasion where our experts have not been available for court when required.

Hopefully the expert will get to enjoy the remainder of his holiday and his ‘stand in’ will be allowed to give the evidence in this case.

If you have a case you would like to discuss please contact Denise on 01527 467467 or denise@footprintinvestigations.com