Order 38 r 4 is obviously a useful weapon to deploy against attempts to call several
experts where one would do. Order 38 r 36 is not so much an attempt at keeping the
amount of expert evidence within bounds as a rule designed "to put an end to the
laying of expert ambushes; to the springing upon a party of oral expert evidence with
which he and his counsel are quite unable to deal." In other words, its purpose "is to
prevent surprise and to enable cross-examining counsel to be properly prepared at the
trial."
Pre-trial disclosure of an expert report may of course result in a challenge to
its admissibility before or at the trial.
Notes
Both quotations are from Herman Iskandar v Bonardy Leo [1988] 1 HKLR 583, per Hunter JA at
605.