Giving Evidence as an Expert Witness

When asked to give evidence as an expert witness the court or the parties can have more than one expert witness assigned to one case. In this case section 23.15 was introduced so that the expert witnesses could compare and contrast their opinions raised in their expert reports. The section 23.15 (a) – (d) was introduced to save time during the court proceedings as expert witnesses were being asked the same questions and giving the same responses, so that it was wasting valuable time and extending court proceedings ("Expert evidence — Judicial Commission of New South Wales", 2016).

When evidence is being presented by an expert witness they must remember that their duty is to the court and not to their employer if employed by either the defence or the prosecution. This is because you are there to give your expert opinion on the evidence provided and you should not be biased towards one side of the court just because they are paying your wages. Another recommendation for giving evidence is that you should always disclose to the court when being questioned if it falls outside of your realm of expertise. This is because you are not an expert in this area so therefore your knowledge could be out of date or incomplete and therefore could be misinforming the court and therefore my influence the wrong decision ("Forensic Evidence Admissibility & Expert Witnesses: Rule 702", 2016).

References

Expert evidence — Judicial Commission of New South Wales. (2016). Judcom.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 27 May 2016, from http://www.judcom.nsw.gov.au/publications/benchbks/criminal/expert_evidence.html

Forensic Evidence Admissibility & Expert Witnesses: Rule 702. (2016). Forensicsciencesimplified.org. Retrieved 27 May 2016, from http://www.forensicsciencesimplified.org/legal/702.html