Forensic Investigation

Forensic investigations in the 21^st century are now truly multi-faceted, requiring the technical, scientific, cultural, lingual, and geographic capabilities of a multidisciplinary team.  RTI brings three decades of experience and professionals from around the world to serve the diverse forensic investigation needs of our clients.

Over the first decade of this century, various dramatic changes have occurred to improve the quality, uniformity, and efficiency of accident investigation procedures, along with reforms to investigator qualification regulations, in particular:

• Traditional practices of accident investigation and safety management systems in multimodal industries such as aviation and marine are now being integrated to create uniformity of reporting and eliminate less effective practices.
• Demands for law reform and upgrades to high-risk industrial and transportation sectors have resulted in new codes that require more professional investigations to achieve a higher uniform standard of analysis and reporting. 
• Expert witness professional academies and institutes have become essential vetting organizations in providing a forum to set standards and exchange experiences among members.
• New analytical technologies have enabled conclusions to be made to a higher degree of certainty and recent economic pressures have required investigations to be more cost-effective while maintaining quality.

In addition, terrorist activities have altered our personal sense of security and presented an entirely new class of causation to be considered by the forensic accident investigator, bringing risk assessment and accident analysis face-to-face with security issues. Safety and security management systems are now linked together with heightened risk awareness and more advanced technical demands.

RTI engineers and scientists deeply understand our technical and industry fields of expertise as they are applied to legal, insurance, and regulatory areas.  RTI conducts objective forensic investigations as an independent third party, providing support to attorneys and insurance professionals in matters including, but not limited to:

• Arbitration
• Aviation
• Blue Water Marine
• Boiler and Machinery
• Environmental
• Fire and Explosion
• Hearings
• Health and Safety
• Intellectual Property
• Mediation
• Nuclear
• Product Liability
• Property and Casualty Liability
• Personal Injury
• Recovery and Subrogation
• Trials
• Vehicle Liability
• Workmen’s Compensation
• Wrongful Death

RTI founders were among the first to coin the professional practice term “forensic engineering” in 1975.  Current RTI management team members are dedicated to innovative leadership in meeting the challenges of change in the second decade of this century and beyond.