Eagle Centre Market Refurbishment, Derby

With the advent of another prolonged spell of dry weather and a dramatic increase in insurance claims for damage to houses due to subsidence of the site on which they stand, together with increasing litigation against those involved in remedial underpinning, a polarisation of attitudes is occurring between the various groups concerned. On the one hand, insurers, faced with growing losses, are looking at ways whereby these may be reduced while, on the other, some professionals, nervous of their own position, are indulging in a conservative approach to remedial works. On the technical front this is leading to a division into two main camps - the ‘monitor and see’ v. the ‘total underpin now’. The writer, who has many years’ experience in this field, seeks to try to put the situation into perspective and to offer some suggestions which might help to resolve what is rapidly becoming an increasingly confused subject. D. Goodger

The first published report on CPD, prepared by a joint working party of the Membership and Education & Examination Committees, appeared in the February 1986 issue of The Structural Engineer. At this time the Institution was among the leaders in the engineering profession in promoting CPD. M.G. Baker

From time to time in the course of his career, a structural engineer may be called on to act as an expert witness in civil litigation or arbitration. In order to carry out this role in a professionally competent manner, it is important that certain basic principles of the legal system are understood. This article, brief though it is, sets out certain guidelines for the structural engineer as an expert witness, and particularly points out the pitfalls that beset those who are inexperienced in the workings of the legal system. P.J. Cole