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Where am I now? Lawlink > Law Reform Commission > Publications > 3. Measures to increase transparency
Issues Paper 25 (2005) - Expert Witnesses
3. Measures to increase transparency
Updates and background for this project (Digest)
3.1 It is now common practice that judges and other judicial officers exercise control over the preparation of cases for trial through systems of ‘case management’. Such systems attempt to reduce what is often called ‘trial by ambush’ and to encourage the parties at an early stage to identify the real issues, and to achieve a realistic view of the case, in order to maximise the chance of early resolution.
3.2 Consistently with this, there are a number of common provisions relating to expert witnesses that seem designed to increase transparency. These may be briefly summarised as follows.
a. Providing the other party with advance copies of any reports to be used in the case.
b. Disclosing any expert reports that a party obtains, whether or not to be used in the case.
c. Disclosure of instructions to expert (normally contained in expert’s report anyway).
d. Disclosure of all communications between the party and the party’s expert.
3.3 Such measures are to be found, variously expressed, in the rules of a number of jurisdictions. The detailed rules generally form part of the case management systems of each jurisdiction.
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