Chief Justice Anthony Gates advised lawyers and participants at the Attorney-General’s conference to be wary of experts.
Delivering a paper on the theme “Expert Witnesses and the Civil Evidence Act 2002 – Trends and Developments”, the Chief Justice said that a few months ago, an economic country report put out by one of the commercial banks had adverse comments within a range of possible conclusions on those facts.
“I could see there were further comments made, for which there was no factual basis in the report, had the author become a witness in a civil court, this would have most likely had the following effect,” Justice Gates said.
“First, no reliance could have been placed upon those comments made in the nature of advocacy and which had no underpinning of a factual foundation.”
The Chief Justice said experts must tie down theories by linking them firmly to facts.
“In this regard before deciding to call an expert one must be sure that you as a layman, like the court, can understand what the expert is saying.”
In Fiji it seems medical training has not dealt properly or at all with the difficult business of framing and writing medical reports.
For this reason,Justice Gates said that as experts, one needed not only to consider his own part in the matter, but be ready to deal authoritatively with the plaintiff’s other theories, comments and criticisms.
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