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Section 20:
Expert evidence
Proposal 38
Provisions aimed at countering the inappropriate and excessive use of expert witnesses
should be adopted, giving the court control of the scope and use of expert evidence to be
adduced.
The Interim Report identified two major problems concerning expert evidence in the
existing civil justice system :-
(a)
the inappropriate or excessive use of experts, which increases costs, the duration
of proceedings and their complexity; and,
(b)
partisanship and a lack of independence amongst experts, devaluing their role in
the judicial process.
Proposal 38 seeks to address the first of these problems, canvassing the introduction
of a rule along the lines of CPR 35.4 which would give the court a discretion to
exclude proposed expert evidence. CPR 35.4 provides that "No party may call an
expert or put in evidence an expert's report without the court's permission."
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