BCL Law Notes Principles of Civil Procedure Notes
A collection of the best BCL notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through applications from outstanding students with the highest results in England and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor". In short, these are what we believe to be the strongest set of BCL notes available in the UK this year. This collection of notes is fully updated for recent exams, also making them...
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Expert Witnesses
Adjudication on expert matter than by non-expert judges
Exception to prohibition on opinion evidence
Expert evidence generally based on evidence presented to the expert, or assumptions — rather than on actual observations
Usually made to order
Unlike ordinary witnesses, the number of possible witnesses is limited only by the number of experts in the field
permits imbalance between parties with different resources
permits evidence-shopping
IE Experts are not really “witnesses” in the traditional sense
Need for experts — courts not well equipped to resolve disputes without them
Role of the Expert Witness
Ikarian Reefer per Creswell J — duties and responsibilities of witnesses are:
Must be and must be seen to be independent
Must be unbiased and should not assume role of advocate
Clear description of the facts or assumptions on which evidence is based
Make clear when outside expertise
qualify opinion with level of certainty
Must indicate if change of opinion
All information on which opinion based should be disclosed to the other side
Role
Assisting court to understand & assess the factual evidence
Generate evidence — eg testing samples, DNA, conducting studies — contributing to factual record
Provide opinion — bias is meaningless unless it is extraneous (financial) in nature
Overriding duty is to assist the court in understanding the evidence
No immunity from suit for expert witnesses: Jones v Kaney [2011] UKSC 13 (expert admitted to signing off on joint evidence report without reading it)
Advocates required to be partisan <> witnesses required to be unbiased
Deters credible expert witnesses — concerned about liability
Duty to client is of due care, skill & diligence — same as duty to court
Qualification
USSC Daubert — must be (a) scientific knowledge and (b) will assist trier of fact
Whether opinion / theory / technique — has been tested, subjected to peer review, known or potential error rate, general acceptance can be important & known technique which attracts minimal support can properly be viewed with scepticism
Admissibility more important when you have a jury?
<> low bar to expertise, merely goes to weight — Rogers (investigation of plane accident — report had mixture of factual findings & opinions as to cause of accident author of report had job of investigating such incidents — appropriately qualified to do so)
TG (care proceedings to remove child from abusive parents — father accused of abuse — father led evidence that baby falling out of chair caused injuries — biomechanical expert purported to give that evidence theory so ungrounded that would not assist — no witness to actual event — father’s evidence was only that baby was found on the ground — no evidentiary foundation)
Court’s ability to...
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A collection of the best BCL notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through applications from outstanding students with the highest results in England and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor". In short, these are what we believe to be the strongest set of BCL notes available in the UK this year. This collection of notes is fully updated for recent exams, also making them...
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