FORENSIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND EXPERT WITNESS TESTIMONY.
LICENSED TESTIMONY. INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS.

What a forensic electrical engineer does

A forensic electrical engineer investigates the cause of electrical failures, fires, electrocutions, and equipment damage, then documents the findings to the standard a claim or a courtroom requires. The investigation moves from the physical evidence back to the root cause, weighing the design, the installation, the operating conditions, and the applicable codes and standards. Forensic engineering is an established discipline with its own professional academy, the National Academy of Forensic Engineers, and its conclusions are expected to rest on evidence and method rather than assertion.

SLC performs that investigation as a licensed Electrical Professional Engineer who also designs and permits the same classes of systems under examination: distribution, EV charging, energy storage, and site electrical infrastructure. The analysis is grounded in current design and permitting practice, because the engineer doing it still does that work.

Electrical failure analysis and fire origin investigation

Electrical failure analysis is the systematic investigation of why an electrical component, system, or installation failed, tracing the failure from its effect back to its root cause. It separates a manufacturing defect from an installation error, misuse, or normal wear, and it has to survive review by opposing experts, so it rests on the physical evidence, the engineering, and the standards.

Fire origin investigation asks whether, and how, an electrical system started or contributed to a fire, working from the burn patterns and surviving evidence back to an ignition source. Electrical fire and explosion investigations follow NFPA 921, the Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations, the methodology referenced in the field, in training, and in court; the current edition is 2024.

The same analysis increasingly reaches newer systems: EV charging equipment, inverters, and battery energy storage, where thermal and electrical failure questions arrive faster than the case law that frames them. SLC examines those systems as an engineer who designs and permits them in current practice.

Expert witness testimony, reports, and depositions

Expert witness testimony is the presentation of an engineer's findings and opinions to a court: a written report, deposition, and trial testimony, in language a judge and jury can follow. Its value depends on independence and clarity. The opinion has to be defensible on the evidence and explainable without jargon, and the engineer giving it has to answer for every step of the analysis under oath.

At SLC, the engineer who examines the evidence is the engineer who writes the report and gives the testimony. Nothing is delegated to a junior analyst and signed afterward, so every answer in deposition comes from the person who did the work. Frank Sylvester is licensed as an Electrical Professional Engineer in California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington, and takes matters in all four states.

Cases SLC takes

SLC accepts forensic and expert witness matters where the dispute turns on electrical engineering: electrocution and electrical injury, equipment and product failure, electrical fire origin, construction defect and code compliance disputes, and utility service and electrical distribution disagreements. Each potential matter is reviewed before it is accepted, to confirm the expertise fits the question the case is actually asking.

Retaining the engineer early preserves options: evidence can be examined before it is altered or discarded, and the analysis can be scoped to the questions that decide the matter. SLC works for plaintiff and defense alike; the analysis is the same either way, because it is built on the evidence rather than the engagement.