ISO9000 Expert Witness work with the legal profession

[BobC]

Not too sure where to post this...

I was wondering if any of you folks out there, specifically the more experienced consultants and assessors, have had any experience relative to ISO9000 Expert Witness work with the legal profession yet?

Any feedback would be great! thx.

 

[Marc]

I've spoken with a few lawyers who had questions but never served as an 'expert witness'. Have you been asked? What's the scoop?

 

[Rick Goodson]

I have not had the dubious honor, and plan to avoid it like the black plague. This is a real slippery slope when we start looking at the standard as black and white requirements knowing that the registrars do not. There is entirely to much variation from registrar to registrar and from auditor to auditor regarding interpretaion of the requirements.

There is a nasty court case involving an unnamed farm implement manufacturer (ISO 9001 registered) where they are trying to use the design review requirements as a method of getting to design review minutes to determine which decisions where made based on what information. While we (the quality guys) might debate the relative value of some of the requirements in the standard, I would hate to think organizations will evaluate registration based on the potential law suit that might result due to a records requirement or the failure to dot all the i's and cross all the t's required under an ISO standard.

 

[Marc]

The lawyers that called me asked about stuff like management review meetings and internal audits.

 

[Jim Biz]

Marc: could you expand a bit on "why" lawyers were interested in Mgt Review & Internal Audit from a "legal" standpoint?

Guess your comment has me wondering how or what impact those two areas would have from a legality standpoint.

Regards
Jim

 

[Marc]

My understanding was they wanted to be able to show what upper management knew or 'should have known' and when they knew it. The companies were being sued in each case, and each was (is?) ISO 900x registered. I was never told who/what company was involved or any specific details.