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Evidence Access Tools
The primary tool used to facilitate the access of information is our Evidence Database. This database has been evolving over the past 15 years; however, throughout the last 3 years, we developed a complex relational database which serves as our central work product. An architect can quickly review a page of notes he gathered in the field with thumbnail photographs for each field entry. Additionally, evidence can be searched for by a variety of methods, including address, date, inspector, or using a word search. Many firms have developed useful methods for accessing evidence. R.W. James & Associates has taken that approach a step further. The framework of our database allows us to define the common elements in construction including phase and census information, subcontractors, and construction trades, as well as alleged defective conditions. A typical case might include twenty principal parties, eighty architectural defects, and two hundred housing units constructed in three phases. It is essential that this impressive amount of information is accessible in an organized and user friendly manner. Our Evidence Database does exactly this. The next step in our process is to assign trades to contractors, trades to defects, and defects to phases. By defining and assigning these construction elements, we can calculate the financial responsibility of any given contractor. By assigning defects to evidence, R.W. James & Associates can quickly access all of the evidence associated with a subcontractor, defect, or any other piece of information within a project. We are often asked to assign responsibility. Toward this end, we employ integrated analysis tools to help our experts’ pinpoint cause and effect relationships. One of those tools looks at window groupings to ascertain whether a window above another window may contribute to water intrusion in the window group below.
Another integrated database tool allows us to offer cost estimation
services. In an existing project, we can at any time, break down
financial responsibility on a house-by-house basis. If a cost
changes for a given repair, that single change can be applied to
all lots that use that cost as a basis for a repair estimate.
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