Services - Expert Witness

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Technical Web Services offer Expert Witness services for court cases or direct conflict resolution. Based on over 20 years of intense web based activity, TWS are ideally suited to cast expert option on a whole range of complex issues. This service costs £600 for the first billable week and then £300 per additional billable week. Please note that this is not a full time task but rather reflects the time required to digest and reflect on the information. It also includes time lost waiting for information from any party.

Typical examples are highlighted below:.

Services

  • Contract & Proposal Review: TWS have been called in to review contract proposals in relation to high value SEO bids. In these instances, it can be determined that SEO suppliers and others can often hide the nature of their proposed service activity beneath layers of flowery language and complex terms. This service can also involve sitting in on contract negotiations and meetings as a third party expert witness to determine that the service provider is putting forward readily achievable objectives as well as determining that all such measures to determine these objectives are met are in place. This service is also applicable to web site design proposals and management bids.
  • Domain Resolution: A small area but often a complex one, TWS can advise on domain ownership and domain squatting issues. TWS can also assist in retrieving lost domains from service providers that are out of business or otherwise unwilling to undertake domain transfers or changes of ownership.
  • Delivery Issues: TWS can assist in cases where a service provider has failed to deliver to the clients expectations. This can cover overall expectation of graphic design and quality of delivered products, as well as traffic performance issues. Many small companies do not fully understand what it is to get a web site. The general understanding is that web design companies are magical and by delivering a web site they are delivering top rankings and unlimited business enquiries. This is often not the case, however, in many instances, a service provider can miss-sell their product with the promise of state of the art out of the box high end graphic design and top rankings. And in many cases this is not delivered. TWS can provide expert witness on design issues including missing links, images, faulty coding, non-functioning database integration and JavaScript as well as any other issues that might be otherwise making a site either unusable or not fit for purpose. TWS can also advise on SEO attempts where service providers have promised high rankings that have failed to materialise. In the case of SEO activity it is reasonable for the service provider to demonstrate what they have done to achieve results. If they do the TWS can examine these efforts and deliver an expert witness statement on them, else, a case could be taken to court, and a judge could order the service provider to either provide evidence of the work they have carried out or satisfy a claim in favour of the customer. These types of claim are difficult to move forward and would depend largely on the merits of each individual case.
  • Costing: TWS can also advise on costing issues, advising on market standards and service value. The whole world of web based services is generally unregulated. As such, costs can vary considerably across the board. Some companies can charge £50 for a tag change whilst others offer this service for free. In many cases the values are negligible, but once your spend reaches a certain level it can be beneficial to perform some cost analysis. In particular, paid advertising services can often incur huge costs with little return. TWS can assist at all levels in determining the overall value of your web based spend and advise on best practice for controlling expenditure. As a third party Expert Witness, TWS will produce an audit with recommendations. TWS has experience in saving companies more than £1000/year in this regard.
  • General Service: In many cases, court action is not necessary, as many problems are caused by the differences in a customers understanding of issues and that of the service provider. In such cases, TWS can act as a mediator in a conflict resolution role between the two parties to determine the best course of action.

This service is aimed mainly at the small to medium sized business and TWS are not interested in representing large corporates. The service is suited to claimants moving through the small claims courts and where, whilst in many cases the costs are prohibitive, we have found that one of the major obstacles in pursuing this route is the access to affordable Expert Witnesses.

Also, please note that the expert witness service does not cover legal advice, only technical opinion on web related practice and services.

If you do feel that your service provider has done the dirty on you and would like to pursue legal action, TWS can help.

To learn more about our Expert Witness services please feel free to call for an informal chat on 07745 466608, or e-mail sales@technicalwebservices.com

Guidance

Before you elect to use an expert witness you must determine what sort of service you require. The options are generally either Advice or Preparation Of Report For Court. The two options are detailed below:

Advice: Advice can be provided at several levels:

  • Verbal Consultation
  • Informal Report (no scalability for court use)
  • Formal Report (Based on Model Report for Court use)

Court Report: A Court Report will be based on a Model report as described by the CPR35. Preparation of a Court Report is generally more onerous and can result in written questions from the court or other party as well as court attendance, all of which will result in additional fees.

In all cases, the provision of the service shall be approached as through a duty to a court, that is, the service is impartial and you might not feel that the conclusions are correct or in your favour. To put this into perspective, when a client appoints an expert witness to a court case, the expert witness's duty is to the Court, not the client who appointed him.

Whatever type of service you require you will need to supply supporting information as well as providing clear instructions such as a number of questions to which you wish expert answers. For example:

  • Can you determine whether or not the web site at a particular domain is complete and performing to certain criteria set out in a particular document.
  • Determine the fairness of design fees for a particular service.
  • Determine that a particular service for SEO has been carried out, and whether full care has been undertaken in the provision of this service.

The more specific the questions the better. You can ask Five Questions per party. Additional questions are £75.

Once the questions have been submitted and payment made all correspondence must be made by email and limited to progress. TWS will not engage in general conversation with either party after this point.

Forms

The pdf link below give guidance on the use of experts in court cases:

Civil Justice Council - Protocol for the Instruction of Experts to give Evidence in Civil Claims.

Form N244 is used for appointing a witness including Single Joint Witnesses and costs £40 to process through your court. Please note that TWS recommend that you download your N244 form from the http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/ site in order to ensure that you have the latest edition as the form linked below could be out of date. (form correct as of 04/03/10):

N244.

Web Design Expert Witness

To find out more about what TWS can offer please call 07745 466 608

Budget Site

£400

4 Pages

None Managed

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Full Site

£1,000

Unlimited Pages

None Managed

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Serviced Site

£1,400

10 Accounts

Managed

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E-mail Account

£65

0 Pages

None Managed

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Hosting Only

£100

Unlimited Pages

None Managed

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1 Page Sites

£100

1 Page

None Managed

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Custom Sites

POA

Unlimited

Managed

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Wordpress Sites

From £100

5 Pages

None Managed

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Online Shops

£3,000

Unlimited Pages

Managed

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Technical Web Services - 268 Bath Road - Slough - Berkshire - SL1 4DX - 07745 466 608 - 0208 123 0110
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