The catch to independence requirements: independent expert witnesses

De Costi (Franchises) Pty Ltd and Anor v Wachtenheim and Anor (No 3)[2013] NSWDC 54 (3 May 2013)

In this edition of Expert Matters Alex Canale, manager in our Sydney office, discusses a judgment in a case where both accounting experts engaged by the Defendant were lacking the required independence.

Background

The role of independent expert witnesses in assisting a trier of fact to understand and draw conclusions from complex evidence is built on several well established foundations. Matters such as the independence of experts, the relevance of their opinions to assisting the trier of fact to determine the matters before them and the admissibility principles of the Uniform Evidence Acts, as expanded in Makita¹, must be sufficiently addressed prior to the tendering of expert evidence.