Shoot To Kill: Expert Bias Is An Issue Of Admissibility

Class Action Case Update: Justice Perell's recent decision in Wise v Abbott Laboratories, Limited, 2016 ONSC 7275 addressed a number of key areas of interest for the class action bar. Full series updates can be found below. 

Where there are concerns that an opposing party's expert is biased, one course of action has been to argue that their evidence be given "less weight". According to a recent decision by Justice Perell, in Wise v Abbott Laboratories, Limited, 2016 ONSC 7275, there is no longer any room for such half-measures. Based on Wise, challenging experts on their independence is an all or nothing proposition: if the apparent bias is sufficiently clear, then it can result in the disqualification of the expert, but it cannot result in an otherwise admissible opinion being given less weight.