Evidence preservation after casualty
After ship casualties, collisions, salvage situations or flood events, the state must be documented quickly and reproducibly. Every delay lets traces disappear — through current, sediment and fouling.
Sector · Insurance & Expert Witness
Insurance & Expert Witness
Audit-grade evidence preservation and damage capture underwater. ScanSustain delivers position-referenced, traceably documented findings that hold up in expert and court contexts — with no media breaks between mission, expert assessment and insurance file.
For whom
Insurers, loss adjusters, technical expert witnesses, court experts, emergency organisations, salvage companies and expert offices responsible for underwater or casualty contexts. Typical clients are the technical data provider role behind the expert report — or the insurance or authority side directly.
Typical Problem Contexts
Court-capable damage documentation
A verbal diver protocol is weak in the expert context. Court and insurance files demand objective evidence with time, position and method reference — exactly what ROV recordings provide.
Search and coverage proof
In missing-object searches, loss cases or trace hunts, it is not the find alone that counts, but the traceable proof that the entire search area was actually covered. Without a grid-based strategy, every search remains contestable.
Damage cause findings during operations
In harbour, industrial and hydraulic contexts, damage often has to be documented while operations continue. Diver deployments force downtime — ROV missions do not.
Independent, third-party usable basis
Insurers and experts need a data foundation gathered independently of the operator or causing party. The methodology must be transparently documented and traceable in a later procedure.
Matching ScanSustain Services
For insurance and expert-witness missions, Search & Recovery is the core module, frequently combined with sonar, ROV inspection and survey — depending on the question, visibility conditions and required court capability.
Typical Workflow
- Briefing with expert or adjuster
Objective, search or documentation area, reporting format and usage context are clarified in advance — so the captured data flows into the expert report or the insurance file without rework. - Search and documentation strategy
Definition of a grid-based search pattern or defined inspection route with reference points, so that coverage and find remain traceable at any time. - Execution with gapless recording
HD video, targeted stills, sonar and position data — every second of the mission is archived. The documentation chain begins with the first frame and ends with the handover. - Structured findings report
Analysis with photo and video references, location context, description of find and damage points and method protocol. Format is agreed with the expert. - Handover with reproducibility memo
Method protocol and raw data are handed over in archivable form. Third parties can later reconstruct the same finding from the documentation if needed.
Typical Deliverables
- Position-referenced video and photo documentation of the damage or find
- Coverage proof of the search strategy (in search missions)
- Sonar dataset in restricted visibility
- Structured findings report in the format agreed with the expert
- Method and reproducibility memo for court and expert proceedings
- Raw data archive for later reconstruction by third parties
Benefits for the Client
- Court-capable documentation instead of subjective diver statements
- Objective coverage proof in searches and loss cases
- Rapid evidence preservation with no personnel risk underwater
- Independent data basis for experts, insurers and courts
- Clear separation between technical capture and expert assessment
- Traceability even years after the mission — decisive in late procedures
Typical Scenario
After a ship casualty in an inland harbour, the insurer needs an independent underwater damage assessment of a damaged quay wall. Harbour operations cannot be interrupted, and visibility in the harbour is strongly reduced by stirred-up sediment. A diver deployment would mean days of closure and only weakly documented results. Instead, an ROV mission with sonar support and a defined route is commissioned. Result within a few working days: complete video and sonar documentation of the damage pattern, structured findings report with position reference, method protocol for the later expert report. The dataset becomes the objective basis for loss assessment — and remains traceable in the procedure years later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ROV documentation admissible in court?
Yes. Video and photo documentation with timestamp, position reference and traceable method protocol is fundamentally admissible in expert and court contexts. We agree format and documentation depth in advance with the expert or commissioning party, so the finding flows into the report without rework.
How fast can a mission follow a damage event?
Depending on location and availability, short-notice missions are possible. For casualties, loss cases or acute damage states, rapid evidence preservation is critical — underwater traces change through current, sediment movement and biological fouling.
What distinguishes a documented ROV search from a diver's protocol?
An ROV search delivers complete, time- and position-referenced video and sonar documentation of the entire search strategy — not just the find. Coverage proof is therefore objectively evidenced. A diver protocol, by contrast, remains largely a subjective statement without reproducible evidence. More in the knowledge hub →
Can documentation be produced in turbid water?
Yes. When visibility is restricted, sonar takes over the geometric capture. Structures, objects and changes can be documented even at visibilities below 0.5 m — a critical prerequisite for damage capture in harbours, rivers and industrial basins.
Do you work directly with insurers or via the expert?
Both are possible. Clients can be insurers, loss adjusters, court experts, expert offices or emergency organisations. In many cases we are the technical data provider for the expert, who performs the substantive assessment and produces the report.
Related pages
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