“The Joint Field Survey Process”
Author: Rik van Hemmen
Published in the June 2000, Volume XVII No. 1 issue of the Journal of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers
There is a distinct difference between land based and maritime forensic investigations.
Rik van Hemmen is a fellow in the National Academy of Forensic Engineers and in 2000 presented this description of maritime forensic investigations at the NAFE national convention.
The paper focuses on the concept of jointness that is inevitably required in maritime, but not generally applied in land based investigations. Jointness is an American concept and was started in the 1930’s by the US Salvage Association through its standardized Field Survey process. Through Henk van Hemmen’s efforts at M&O the concept of jointness continued to be applied and is well known throughout the maritime community.
The paper shows that in land based investigations the lack of jointness is detrimental to the ability of all parties to determine the truth and at present M&O is heavily involved in extending jointness to criminal forensic and land based investigations.
To download the full paper click this link: Joint_Field_Survey_Process