Peer review question 1

[CAS1]

Is it normal for an engineer to type his/her draft report directly onto the peer's letterhead and then the peer edit the document without saving a draft? I'm being told that's what HiRise Engineering did with the report for our home and that there are no draft versions of the report. The engineer's signature wasn't even original, there was a shadow around it showing that it had been copy and pasted onto the report. There's no proof of what the original report said and the engineer won't talk to me directly because he said I'm not his customer so he can't talk to me. The report was used to deny my claim and that's why I'm having a problem with the "no draft" answer.

 

[racookpe1978]

Sounds "funny" ..

But there are too few details about the process, nor why you suspect there was either (1) foul play (deliberate deception)
or (2) accidental or incidental error (lost the original or the first copy, so they duplicated another answer.

What was supposed to have happened, and why do you think something else happened? And what are the consequences of either happening?

 

[oldestguy]

What ever comes out of the engineer's office is what you get and how they prepared it is not your business. If you have a problem with it, I'd hire an attorney and a very experienced engineering firm to fight it. You have no right to their internal workings.

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

As oldestguy points out, most if not all engineering firms have an internal review process. Those internal review copies should always be removed from the file when the report is issued.

Now if you are talking about a draft report that was issued to someone else, then there should be several copies of the draft report floating around.

Mike Lambert

 

[pcronin]

You need an attorney and should reopen your claim. There were a lot of "engineering reports" modified by non-engineers during the Sandy aftermath.

 

[allgoodnamestaken]

You can't ask for drafts, but you can ask the engineer who signed it to verify that the report is legitimate and wasn't altered. If the engineer won't verify that the report as given to you is genuine than there is a significant problem. You aren't asking him to do calculations, you're asking him to acknowledge that he wrote the report and that it wasn't altered by a third party. If he says he can't answer that because you aren't his customer, let him know that the next step will be to have your lawyer submit the report you received to whatever your state/province certifying engineering body is to have them look into the matter, since he won't acknowledge his professional responsibility to at least verify that the report is his work.

Either the work is legitimate and he'll take responsibility for it, or it isn't and he'll scramble when he realizes someone is going to review it.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

I'm assuming you're not an engineer and are just the homeowner. Typically these forums are for engineers to help other engineers but you might have found the exception. I second that this is the time to get an attorney as this sounds fishy but may or may not be acceptable depending on many factors.

One other thing, and don't do this right out of the gate, wait until you have all the facts you can get; if you do have a good case that an engineer did something unethical then report them to your states engineering licensing board (but don't drag an innocent engineer through the mud if they actually are blameless). If the party at fault was not an engineer (for example if someone is performing engineering without a license or are modifying or copying an engineers work) then you'll want to complain to the district attorneys office.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[CAS1]

I was able to find out (don't ask, I'm not throwing anyone under the bus) that the report was indeed altered and that the engineer's signature was forged on the final report. The "peer" was from another company than the engineer.

Thank you all for your help.

 

[hawkaz]

This is a very serious charge- Did you let the engineer who's name was forged know?
I would report this to the state board if I were them

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Wow, I agree with hawkaz! Let the original engineer know ASAP. You are likely not the only person that has had this happen to if this is the case. If they did indeed alter the report and forge the engineers stamp and/or signature then they've done something illegal. If they original engineers confirms your suspicion then I'd talk to a lawyer, state district attorneys office, the state engineering board, and your insurance company. Let us know how this turns out.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

You're likely not the only one; [URL unfurl="true"]http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/02/18/li-engineering-firm-raided-amid-attorney-general-probe-into-sandy-insurance-payouts/[/url]

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[andriver]

Out of curiosity, how does an engineer stand to gain by falsifying inspection reports? Is it some under the table dealings from the insurance company?

 

[XR250]

FWIW, it is very difficult to get those home warranty companies to pay up on any structural issue. Most engineers that they use are pretty bottom of the barrel in my experience.

 

[PEinc]

Is it possible that some responders are jumping to conclusions? I don't believe that the original posing was sufficiently clear for this question to be answered accurately. It is unclear if the two engineers are working together and the second peer reviewer is signing the report because he is the PE. Maybe the first engineer is not a PE. Maybe the signature (and PE stamp?) was pasted on by the second engineer. Maybe the second engineer is consulting to the first engineer and that is why he did not want to speak directly with the original poster. I purposely did not answer the question (before any other responses) because the facts were not clear, IMHO.

http://www.PeirceEngineering.com

 

[bridgebuster]

He bills his time for doing something else.

 

[CAS1]

The NJ Attorney General's Office, Division of Criminal Justice, contacted me and they are working on this. The detective who contacted me has a copy of both the draft report and the altered report for our home. They had to open an investigation because of the number of people whose reports were altered by the same peer review company.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/17/n...-reports-were-altered.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0

"In November, allegations of altered reports prompted a federal judge overseeing more than 1,000 hurricane related lawsuits in the New York City area to order all drafts of the engineering reports be turned over, saying he believed such revisions could be “widespread.” Lawyers for homeowners in the suits began reviewing the documents, and say they have already identified more than 500 doctored reports."

To answer why they did this. "Since private companies process flood insurance claims on behalf of FEMA -- issuing payouts from federal coffers -- they’re on the hook for repaying any excess money if government auditors later find those payments were issued in error. But critics point out that they don’t face equally severe penalties for underpaying policyholder claims."

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/...ompanies-may-have-shortchanged-sandy-victims/