Preparing for Examination-in-Chief of the Expert

On October 20, 2016, Thomson Rogers’ personal injury lawyer Craig Brown presented on “Preparing for Examination-in-Chief of the Expert” at the PIA Law Practical Strategies for Experts: Testifying Without Fear conference.

Excerpt of paper:

The purpose of this paper is to provide practical assistance to counsel and experts who are preparing for trial.  To provide some background, I will briefly review the requirements of Rule 53 in preparation of an expert report.  A prerequisite for calling expert evidence at trial is the service of a compliant report and an Acknowledgment of Expert’s Duty (Form 53).  This requirement applies only to “litigation experts” according to the principles set out by the Court of Appeal in Westerhoff v. Gee Estate, 2015 ONCA 206.

The remainder of the paper will deal with the practical challenges of organizing and executing adequate briefings.  There will some discussion of the format of the expert’s evidence at trial since the end result informs the preparation.

It must be remembered that from the advocate’s point of view, the purpose of calling an expert is to persuade the court of the merit of the expert’s opinion on relevant issues in the litigation.  There is a significant tension between that purpose and the expert’s obligation to the court to be objective.  The resolution of this tension is the high art of trial advocacy.

Read full paper: Preparing for Examination-in-Chief of the Expert

View PowerPoint Presentation

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