Dr. Stephen Castell, Chartered Information Systems Practitioner and Member of the Expert Witness Institute, is Chairman of CASTELL Consulting. He is an internationally acknowledged Independent Computer Expert who has been involved in a wide range of computer litigation over many years. CASTELL Consulting, currently in its twenty-fifth year, provides independent professional consultancy and expert services in Computer Systems, Software, Project Management, Strategy, and Contract Disputes, to a wide variety of international clients and companies.
As an Expert Witness in computer litigation, Dr. Castell has acted in over 100 major cases including the largest and longest computer software actions to have come to trial in the English High Court. He is the author of the best-selling Computer Bluff (1983), and of The APPEAL Report (1990) on the admissibility of computer evidence in court and the 'legal reliability' of information systems and technologies (with the CCTA).
Dr Castell, award-winning international Professional ICT Consultant and Expert has acted as expert witness in an unusual medical equipment procurement litigation of relevance to the current Covid-19 pandemic and its profound clinical and hospitalisation implications. The court case, specific details of which cannot be given since the matter is subject to Confidentiality Hearing strictures, was over a dispute concerning due and diligent process undertaken by a major Hospital Management Group, the Defendant in the action, in issuing a Tender for complex diagnostic units, and the Group’s selection of the bid put in by a US corporation, a leader in its field. That winning bid was challenged by a Claimant, another US corporation, a market competitor to the winning company. The dispute hinged on whether or not the operational computer software of the winning bidder’s units was compliant with the Hospital Management Group’s strict Tender stipulation that the software had to be identical across all versions of the equipment to be supplied in meeting the Tender requirements.
Dr Castell’s investigation and analysis of the operational software involved, and his opinion as to the extent that the software was compliant with the strict Tender condition, provided insight and assistance to the parties in reaching a satisfactory settlement.
In a recent trial, in which I acted as an expert witness, some notable differences appeared to me to emerge, as between UK and USA judicial standards and practices, in regard to the role, obligations, testimony, presentation and rigor of digital forensics expert findings.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) includes in its provisions Article 17, the Right to be Forgotten, which could potentially be a formidable barrier to the ubiquitous introduction of cryptographic blockchain software and technology.
The new government has announced the areas that it has identified for dramatic cuts in public spending. One of the most effective reductions should be derived through more professional, better-managed government IT spending.
You are an established, reputable, medium-sized corporation. A year ago your board decided to upgrade your existing computer systems by buying a 'unified package', 'lightly-customised', from a 'solution provider'.
Synopsis of a Talk given to the Association of Independent Computer Specialists
Software implementation contracts are frequently terminated with the software rejected amidst allegations from both supplier and customer, e.g. software/database errors/deficiencies, faulty design, shifting user/business requirements. An important technical issue on which the IT Expert appointed in such disputes is asked to give an expert opinion is: what was the quality of the delivered software and was it fit for purpose?
The Negotiation Competition, now in its fifth year, is a contest open to all law students in England and Wales, designed to promote the skill of negotiation, a crucial component of ADR
I spent much of a whole year recently investigating why a major IT outsourcing deal broke down, and had given rise to the largest software contract dispute yet seen in the English High Court
Disputes over failed software construction projects raise interlinked technical and legal issues which are complex, costly, and time-consuming to unravel – whatever the financial size of the claims and counterclaims, the facts and circumstances of the contract between the parties, or the conduct of the software development
Stephen Castell, PhD
This book - "Blockchain Technology and Innovations in Business Processes" - provides a platform to bring together researchers, academia and industry collaborators to exchange their knowledge and work to develop better understanding about the scope of blockchain technology in business management applications of different sectors such as retail sector, supply chain and logistics, healthcare sector, manufacturing sector, judiciary, finance and government sector in terms of data quality and timeliness.
Stephen Castell, PhD
The Forensic Approach to assessing and dealing effectively with IT Projec Risks. TWO-DAY INTENSIVE SEMINAR, WORKSHOP AND CLINIC. NICE, CÔTE D'AZUR, FRANCE. 17th - 19th MARCH 2005
12/7/2009
Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO) 2nd Annual Investing In ICTs In Emerging Markets: Examining Business & Investment Opportunities In Developing Economies. 9th & 10th December 2009, Inmarsat Conference Center, London, UK
10/8/2009
The findings of this expert investigation were clearly reported by Dr Castell to the court and (most unusually) were fully accepted by the Prosecution without any need for cross-examination, assisting in achieving a Not Guilty verdict from the Jury.
