If any of you have ever watched Damages on TV you probably wonder where they come up with their plot lines. (If you haven’t seen it, you should – but watch it from the beginning.) I often tell people they wouldn’t believe half of the insane stuff that goes on in lawsuits. Anyway, in a suit against Chevron concerning their alleged polluting of an Ecuadorean rain forest, it was discovered that one of the expert witnesses had filed fraudulent reports with the court. The expert was hired by the plaintiffs to oversee water and soil tests, but had to return to the US before the reports were prepared. In a multi-BILLION dollar suit, the expert witness essentially signed a blank report that he allegedly believed would be filled in with the actual results. Imagine his surprise when although he recalled finding no significant contamination, the reports with his signature on them indicated that the sites were significantly impacted and required remediation. The “mistake” was discovered when the expert’s name was misspelled on his own correspondence with the court. This apparently alerted Chevron’s attorneys that something was not quite right with this expert’s reports. Can you believe that some guy was actually paid to oversee reports in a case of this magnitude and doesn’t even bother to make sure he signs the actual results? Now that I think of it, this sounds more like an episode of the Simpsons.
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In the eyes of the law 
The expert really made a foolish mistake and for that reason a charge for fraud could be imposed upon him. The expert should of considered signing the actual reports.
The type of corporate fraud that the biggest MNC are engaging in is beyond belief! Nothing surprises me at this point. Everyone from Judges, Congressman, Attorneys and State Officials are bought and paid for by the world’s largest corporations. The internet is finally exposing some of these injustices are alerting the public of just how corrupt things really are. We are fighting the good fight and there isn’t a doubt in my mind that these criminals will be ousted by patriots in the near future.
I think the plaintiffs figured they had the case easily, since they had an “expert”. How bad is Ecuador suffering for them to forge findings on pollution? This is sad and slightly detrimental for green movements.
In a case as big as this, it is not acceptable for the expert to just sign a report with no information presented and not waiting for the actual results. He should face some sort of penalty from his employer.
In a case of this importance, it was ridiculous that the expert signed the results without actually seeing them. It would have been acceptable for him to sign it first, only if he was assured that he could see the results later. The expert’s employer should consider some sort of punishment.
I don’t really know how to react. The expert witness did one of the dumber things that I have ever heard. A multi-billion dollar lawsuit isn’t something that a person should just sign off on and expect someone else to fill in everything correctly.
Since the expert didn’t uphold his end of the deal/contract and made a conscience decision to forego completing his responsibilities he should be charged with fraud and liable for the damages caused. I can’t believe this actually happened to tell you the truth.
When the court is referring to an ‘expert witness’ one would assume that this person would have extensive schooling and therefore the common sense not to sign a black document. It is slightly relieving that with the increasing innovation of technology the likeliness of fraudulent documents being found and brought before a court are increasing. Hopefully, this will discourage ‘experts’ from creating fraudulent documents.
This is quite a blunder by the plaintiffs. They no longer have a case even if there really is significant pollution by Chevron in Ecuador. The high paid lawyers of Chevron’s legal council will have a field day with this mistake. I would expect this kind of treachery from Chevron but not from the environmental organization in Ecuador. I hope this is not a trend. The environmental/ anti-pollution movements in Latin America cannot afford to take hits like the fraud in this case. They are fighting an uphill battle and the credibility of their cause is everything.
This is quite a blunder by the plaintiffs. They no longer have a case even if there really is significant pollution by Chevron in Ecuador. The high paid lawyers of Chevron’s legal council will have a field day with this mistake. I would expect this kind of treachery from Chevron but not from the environmental organization in Ecuador. I hope this is not a trend. The environmental/ anti-pollution movements in Latin America cannot afford to take hits like the fraud in this case. They are fighting an uphill battle and the credibility of their cause is everything. One more tool for the legal arsenal of Multinational corporations.
I would have believed that Chevron (being as big of a corporation as it is) would have reliable expert witnesses, but apparently not. This makes me wonder if other energy coporations are making “mistakes” about their reports and our environment is in more danger than we are led to believe.
Looks like the government of Ecuador is just trying to have someone else foot the bill for their own corruption in the name of “saving the planet.” Hard to tell which side is more corrupt in this case, but as far as stupid goes, the “expert” takes the prize.
Looks like the government of Ecuador is just trying to have someone else foot the bill for their own corruption in the name of “saving the planet.” Hard to tell which side is more corrupt, but as far as stupid goes, the “expert” takes the prize.
I have trouble believing that this would happen in the real world, as an expert one knows the impact of falsifying documents. Not to mention more a multibillion dollar case usually comes with more than one expert witness. So I definitely agree this case isn’t very plausible.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kimberly Houser. Kimberly Houser said: New post on fraudulent expert report in Chevron trial – https://intheeyesofthelaw.com/2010/04/16/doh-foolish-or-fraudulent/ […]
That’s a scary thought that people do not double check their work on such important matters. I wonder if the expert witness was punished for perjury for that case.