CASE PREPARATION
What Counsel Should Gather Before an Initial Civil Engineering Case Review
Travis Basnett, PE · Licensed in SC, NC & GA · July 19, 2026 · 5-minute read
An initial document package does not need to be exhaustive — it needs to be targeted.
Civil engineering disputes rarely have a single, obvious cause. A drainage failure, pavement problem, slope instability, or site-development defect may involve design decisions, construction deviations, deferred maintenance, changed site conditions, or some combination of those factors.
Before an engineer can evaluate causation, the available information must establish a basic timeline:
- What was intended?
- What was actually built?
- What conditions existed when the problem occurred?
- What changed afterward?
Discovery may eventually produce thousands of pages, but an expert does not need every project document before beginning an initial review. A targeted package allows me to understand the dispute, identify the most likely technical issues, and recommend the next steps without spending unnecessary time sorting through marginally relevant material.
The First-Call Package
A preliminary evaluation can often begin with just five core items:
A Case Summary and Timeline: A short chronology identifying the property, the parties, the disputed condition, when it was first observed, and whether it is ongoing. Identify the specific questions you need addressed — for example, whether the original design was reasonable, or whether maintenance contributed to the failure. A defined question keeps the initial review focused.
The Best Available Civil Plans: The most complete and relevant plan set available. Ideally, this includes issued-for-construction (IFC) plans, later revisions, and any record or as-built drawings. Preliminary or permitting sets often do not reflect the documents that actually governed construction.
Representative Photographs and Videos: Visuals documenting the flooding, erosion, sediment buildup, or pavement distress. Original files are preferable because they may preserve useful date, time, and location metadata.
Key Survey and Elevation Information: Civil-site disputes frequently depend on relatively small elevation differences. Topographic surveys, finished-floor elevations, or pipe inverts show whether runoff could enter a building, bypass an inlet, or remain trapped.
The Principal Pleadings: The operative complaint, answer, counterclaims, and relevant discovery responses. The initial review should be grounded in the claims actually being asserted rather than a generalized description of the problem.
Four Categories for a More Comprehensive Review
If the matter proceeds beyond the initial assessment, the additional records required for a deep-dive analysis generally fall into four categories.
1. Design and Spatial Information
The objective here is to precisely compare the intended design with the conditions that exist on the ground.
- Complete civil plan sets and design calculations.
- Stormwater and geotechnical reports establishing baseline site assumptions.
- CAD and digital survey files to evaluate drainage-area boundaries and pipe capacities.
- Post-construction surveys to verify actual field execution. (Note: A drawing labeled “as-built” should not automatically be treated as a complete verification of site conditions without confirming how the data was collected).
2. Event and Environmental Information
For flooding and drainage matters, “there was a heavy storm” is not sufficient by itself to determine liability. I look for:
- Rainfall depth, duration, and intensity to evaluate if the event exceeded design frequencies.
- Antecedent soil-moisture conditions to determine site saturation.
- Real-time media (photos/videos) showing active flow paths or the duration of ponding.
- Evidence of system restrictions, such as blocked pipes, clogged inlets, or restricted downstream discharge.
3. Construction and Regulatory History
Construction records can help distinguish a potential design-related issue from a field-execution issue.
- Requests for Information (RFIs) and Change Orders that document unrecorded field modifications.
- Daily field reports and inspection logs detailing day-to-day site conditions.
- Compaction and materials-testing records (critical for pavement and slope failures).
- Permits, agency review comments, and notices of violation to establish the project’s regulatory history and identify concerns raised during development.
4. Maintenance and Changed Conditions
A properly designed and constructed system can still underperform if it is poorly maintained or if the surrounding environment changes over time.
- Maintenance logs, pond inspection reports, and HOA work orders to determine if an inlet failed due to design or because it was choked with debris.
- Prior complaints and repair invoices establishing when the condition began and how previous parties attempted to fix it.
- Off-site changes such as upstream development, new adjacent retaining walls, modified roof drains, or added pavement that redirected runoff onto the subject property.
The Bottom Line
An initial package does not need to be exhaustive; it needs to be targeted. Gathering these materials at the outset preserves volatile evidence, controls review costs, and produces a faster, more reliable assessment of the technical issues.
Related reading: How expert witnesses evaluate the engineering standard of care
Assembling a case package? I provide expert witness support and limited independent technical review for civil engineering disputes.
About the Author
Travis Basnett, PE is a civil engineer with 16 years of experience in civil site development, stormwater design, drainage evaluation, and flooding investigations. He provides expert witness support and independent technical review for civil engineering disputes and is licensed in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.
Disclaimer: This article is intended for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal or engineering advice regarding any specific matter.