Expert Witness Services
O'Donnell Consulting provides expert witness services, litigation support, and forensic engineering investigations to legal, insurance, and industrial firms. From simple to complex, we investigate product liability issues, determining the root cause of accidents, structural failures, and fire/explosions.
 Boiler Tube Failure |  Conveyor Failure |  Cable Hot Short |
See our Portfolio to read about past cases.
Providing Expertise
We specialize in quantifying how materials and products fail, including mechanical integrity of equipment that has deteriorated due to corrosion, fatigue, damage,
exposure to fire, abuse, and improper manufacture. Our tools include knowledge of materials, fabrication practices and codes and standards.
We have over 40 years experience in engineering design, analysis, troubleshooting and providing expert witness testimony.
We engage our audience with quantitative results, effective visuals and animations. These results:
- Are based on accurate engineering models
- Help you understand the technical issues
- Enables judges and juries to easily understand the technical issues
- Providing testimony in State, Federal & International Courts
- Recent $7.8 M plaintiff award in Allegheny County. See News.
- We have been recognized in the American Lawyer Media Top 100 Verdicts of 2006 and 2007.
- Industrial: Plants, facilities, pressure vessels, pipes, pumps, valves
- Transportation: braking & steering systems, wheels
- Marine: control equipment, steering systems, moorings
- Petrochemical: turbomachinery structures
- Consumer: appliances, sporting equipment, chairs
- Structural: Buildings, support structures, welds
 Coke Oven Battery Analysis |  FEA Model |  FEA Results |
Our failure causation analyses often include metallurgical examinations and materials tests.
- chemical and mechanical analyses
- metallographic examinations
- materials characterization & testing
Producing Results
What sets us apart is our multi-disciplinary experience in designing and analyzing hardware using state-of-the-art computer technology, materials, troubleshooting technical issues - and communicating results in a clear and effective manner. We thoroughly investigate - from taking data at the scene, to analyzing drawings, material specifications, and supporting documentation. Our investigations range from simple engineering analysis, to more complex analysis involving Finite element analysis (FEA) which is used to evaluate design, materials and fabrication/ construction defects. These models produce accurate results (images or animations) which are used to help judges and juries understand the technical issues. (O'Donnell was one of the first engineering firms to use FEA in the Courtroom.)
See Resume Summaries of our senior engineers.
Call us to talk about your expert needs.