Our Story

Johnstone Forensics is an independent forensic investigation and expert witness practice serving attorneys, insurers, property owners, and communities across the United States and Canada.
What began as one architect's golf-safety practice has grown into a team of specialists spanning golf course design and safety, golf ball trajectory analysis, water features, and building construction.

For more than four decades, Michael S. Johnstone, AIA, built a national reputation as one of the country's foremost forensic experts in golf course design and safety. Across hundreds of cases coast to coast
and in forums ranging from the courtroom to a BBC interview following a high-profile Ryder Cup injury — he advanced one demanding principle: that when the danger from an errant golf ball or an unsafe
course condition is foreseeable and preventable, responsibility lies with those who could have prevented it. His work helped raise the standard to which golf courses are held for the safety of players, neighbors, and the public.
 

That work has always had two sides. As an expert witness, Michael delivered the independent, objective analysis that attorneys on both sides of a matter could trust. Just as important, he gave homeowners, communities, and golf courses a way to understand and resolve safety risks before they ever reached a courtroom — measuring where errant balls truly travel, why, and what practical remedies will make a property safe again. Prevention, not just litigation, has always been the goal.

When Zita Huetter joined the practice to help run it, the partnership clicked immediately. She brought the operational discipline to manage the demanding work behind every case while keeping sight of the
larger strategy — equally at home in the weeds and seeing the forest for the trees — which freed Michael to focus on the expert work itself. Together they produced some of the most successful years of his career.

Rather than let a lifetime of hard-won expertise — and the safety standards it helped establish — simply wind down, Michael and Zita set out to build something lasting: a firm that would carry his standards forward and grow beyond a single discipline. Confident in her ability to lead it, Michael passed ownership to her, and Johnstone Forensics took shape as a legacy practice carrying his name and his
commitment to rigorous, impartial work.
 

Today, Johnstone Forensics brings together a roster of seasoned experts across multiple forensic disciplines, offering both expert-witness services and proactive safety evaluations. Michael continues to
contribute as founder while a new generation of specialists carries the work forward — the same rigor, a broader reach.