Expert witness produced reports on ‘an industrial scale’ for wife’s law firm
In Bux v The General Medical Council [2021] EWHC 762 (Admin) (31 March 2021), the High Court of England and Wales approved the decision of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal to erase the applicant’s name from the medical register. The applicant was a doctor who provided nearly 700 reports in claims of food poisoning against travel […]
Right to fair trial required that accused be entitled to challenge expert witness and adduce own expert evidence
The European Court of Human Rights has recently addressed the issue of expert evidence in the case of Yevstratyev v. Russia – 11620/17 (Judgment : Right to a fair trial : Third Section Committee) [2020] ECHR 906 (15 December 2020). The applicant had been charged with murder and robbery. On a re-trial, forensic evidence was […]
Expert evidence was admissible from a party to an insolvency action
In a New South Wales corporate insolvency action, an expert report by a consultant of one of the plaintiff firms was admitted into evidence by the court. The report was by Martin Madden, a senior consultant in KordaMentha, one of the plaintiff firms in the insolvency of the steelmaker Arrium Ltd. Arrium’s counsel argued that […]
Cricketing body to offer expert evidence to head injuries tribunal
The cricketing body, the MCC, is to offer evidence to retain the ‘bouncer’ in cricket, as it would otherwise become a batsman-friendly game, it has been reported by the Daily Mail (who operate under the basis that its readers will understand what all of that means). “Recognising its potential to cause serious physical damage, they […]
Expertise in meth lingo
A Chicago court has dismissed an appeal from a drugs conviction where a police officer gave evidence of the language of meth dealing, and ‘translated’ a number of text messages: “Some exchanges were not particular difficult to decipher while others were more challenging. “She will pay 245 for it” meant a customer was willing to […]
Impact of technology on expert evidence in arbitration
In an article in the ACICA Review, published by the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, Ruby Lee and David Van Homrigh of KordaMentha assess the experience of a year of virtual hearings in arbitration, particularly as regards expert evidence. The article is entitled ‘Expert evidence – the value-add of virtual’. The authors conclude as […]
Forensic lab criticised by prosecution counsel
In this blog post from 2017, Jerry Hayes, barrister and former Conservative MP raises serious questions about the conduct of a forensic laboratory that had confirmed a DNA link between a defendant and a firearm, in a case where he was instructed as prosecuting counsel. They later confirmed that they had not compared mixed profiles […]
Expert witness firm did not owe a fiduciary duty to clients
In Secretariat Consulting PTE Ltd & Ors v A Company [2021] EWCA Civ 6 (11 January 2021), a firm of expert witnesses appealed a ruling by Ms Justice O’Farrell that they could not act for two different clients in related arbitration. The Court of Appeal affirmed the decision, but held that the duty was contractual […]
Indian death row prisoner has fingerprint evidence set aside on appeal
The Supreme Court of India has set aside the conviction of two persons, including one who had been sentenced to death, following a challenge to the fingerprint evidence. Not only was there a doubt over the reliability of the evidence, but even if it had been reliable, it was questionable whether it was sufficient to […]
Data tampering at forensic laboratory
It was reported in 2018 that 40 convictions relating to drug driving had been quashed as the result of data tampering at a laboratory belonging to Randox Testing Services. Another 10,500 cases were potentially affected. Link It seems that the company itself had acted as whistleblower, and two of its employees were arrested on suspicion […]