Expert witnesses must be at the top of their game, notes Merryck Lowe
There was a time when a reasonably competent professional accountant could feel comfortable if called upon to give “occasional” evidence to our courts, without further training or experience and without feeling that only specialists acted as expert witnesses.
Professional activity
We could debate whether the passing of those more gentlemanly arrangements is a loss, but it is clear that those days are gone—expert testimony is now a professional activity in its own right and it seems there is no place for the amateur “gentleman players”.
This is all because changes in the court rules, case law and the custom and practice of advocacy, now make the testimony an experience to be feared by those who are unprepared amateurs. The expert must now, with the risk of a negligence suit, be able to account for his experience and expertise, field cross examination questions from counsel and, with the recent development of hot tubbing, also contend with live exchanges with the opposing expert witness, spurred on by counsel
