Expert Reports

Passion for Wood and its owner, Hendrik Varju, have been retained on several occasions to provide expert reports. These can be useful in a number of circumstances. One example is litigation. You’ve spent thousands of dollars on custom furniture or cabinetry, only to have an inferior product delivered or installed. The company you hired is not dealing with your complaints fairly and you find that your only choice is resorting to litigation.

An expert report from a respected and published craftsman can help in many ways. Litigation is only the final step should other attempts fail. But first attempts include demand letters from you or, better yet, a lawyer. An expert report outlining the defects, as identified by another professional woodworker, can work wonders in helping the case to settle. An unbiased professional opinion is often needed to convince a cabinet making firm to offer up a reasonable settlement rather than continuing on to trial. Sometimes, a lawsuit must be initiated to show you’re serious. An expert report provided early on in the litigation can make the difference in how quickly a case settles.

Another common need for an expert report involves insurance claims. You hire a moving company to move all of your belongings and several pieces of furniture are damaged. You contact the moving company and they refer you to their insurer. You need a professional report detailing the damage and estimating the cost of repair or restoration. Some types of damage are simply not possible, or the cost is higher than the value of the piece. In that case, a professional report helps establish that the insurer needs to replace the furniture, rather than pay for the damage.

You might also have furniture damaged in your own home by various means such as flooding. Or perhaps you suffered the misfortune of having your home broken into and some of your furniture was damaged in the process.

Yet another situation where an expert report can prove invaluable involves injuries caused by woodworking tools and machines. You might be the injured party, having suffered a serious injury due to a manufacturing defect. Or a tool manufacturer might need a report to back up its defence that the injured person was not using proper safety precautions at the time of the accident. An official report written by a professional woodworker accustomed to providing machinery safety training can be very helpful. Sometimes both sides in the dispute share some of the blame, resulting in shared liability for the sustained injuries. An expert report helps to define the issues more clearly.

These are the sorts of situations where a professionally written report can make all the difference to the outcome. Hendrik Varju is not only an experienced fine furniture builder, repairer and restorer, but he also has a law degree (LL.B.) and practiced civil litigation in Toronto before deciding to switch into his current fine furniture business. He is in the unique position of having both woodworking knowledge and experience with the legal system. He has the ability to write clear, professional reports with the kind of credibility that is difficult to find. It can make all the difference to your insurance claim, lawsuit or other dispute.

Click here to go to the Contact page. Send Hendrik an email to set up your initial consultation.