Chain of Custody Procedures and Practices for Failure Investigations

Chain of custody refers to a set of procedures that tracks the movement and transfer of evidence through its collection, safeguarding, security, and analysis. This is accomplished by proper documentation and record keeping by each person who handled and possessed the evidence. The presentation will discuss how to keep and maintain chain of custody during a failure investigation involved in litigation. Topics discussed will be record keeping, evidence handling, evidence storage, and inspection and testing. Best practices, complications, and pitfalls will also be discussed.