Barr Group connects attorneys with failure analysis experts who determine why products fail, whether the product is a consumer device, a lithium-ion battery, a medical device, an industrial control system, or the embedded software inside any of them. We assemble the right blend of electrical, mechanical, materials, and software expertise for each matter, in the US and internationally.
The short version: failure analysis works backward from a failed product to the defect that caused the failure. It supports a claim or defense only when the examination protocol is agreed and documented, non-destructive methods are exhausted before destructive testing, and every step preserves the chain of custody.
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Failure Analysis in Litigation
Failure analysis is the engineering investigation of a product or system that did not perform as intended. In litigation it most often arises in product liability matters, but the same methods support breach of warranty and contract disputes, insurance subrogation, recalls and regulatory responses, and patent cases in which how a product actually works, or fails, is at issue.
Our experts support attorneys in U.S. District Courts, at the International Trade Commission (ITC), before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and in arbitration, as well as in other state, local, and international venues.
Failure Analysis Capabilities
Barr Group's failure analysis experts provide assistance with:
- Root cause analysis of electronic, electromechanical, and software failures
- Component-level examination of printed circuit boards and semiconductors
- Battery failures, including thermal runaway and cell-level electrochemistry
- Electrical fire origin and cause investigation
- Firmware and embedded software defect identification
- Vehicle event data recorder (EDR) and airbag module data retrieval for accident reconstruction
- Medical device malfunctions and adverse event investigation
- Drug-delivery and combination product failures, including packaging, contamination, and stability investigations
- Materials characterization, fractography, and corrosion analysis
- Product teardowns with agreed destructive and non-destructive protocols
- Accelerated life testing and environmental stress testing
- Fault tree analysis and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)
- Forensic and laboratory testing with documented chain of custody
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Experts Across Fields
Failure analysis is rarely a single-discipline problem. A battery fire may turn on cell chemistry, pack electronics, and charging firmware at once. Barr Group's expert witness directory spans all of these disciplines; representative profiles include our mechanical failure analysis and forensic engineering expert, our battery failure electrochemistry expert, our electrical fire and battery failure expert, and our airbag propellant and failure expert.
Related services: reverse engineering and forensic analysis, source code review, and defensible expert reports.