Practical Environmental Forensics
Process and Case Histories
Chapter One
A Lesson in Communications
The ability to effectively communicate technical information in a clear and
simple manner can be, and often is, the determining factor in winning an
environmental forensic argument. This case history illustrates how an inexperienced
mediator allowed a strong advocate to "control" the mediation
process, thereby creating a mediation environment that skewed communication
between defendants and, unknowingly, obstructed input from the
regulatory authority. Because the plaintiff's expert was able to exert such
an inordinate degree of influence on the mediator's understanding of the
key technical issues and damage estimates, the mediator moved away
from the technical issues and focused on "resolution of the dollars." It was
in the twelfth hour of the mediation that a forensic consultant was retained
to solve this "dysfunctional" condition and rescue one of the defendants
fro ... read full excerpt from Practical Environmental Forensics: Process and Case Histories ebook
