Originally published in Legal Times 27 January 2012
It has been argued that there are issues which simply cannot be
decided without expert guidance. Expert opinion evidence is
therefore readily received on issues relating to, inter
alia, ballistics, engineering, chemistry, medicine, accounting
and psychiatry. The question that, however, poses itself is whether
expert evidence is in all circumstances necessary.
Phipson (Evidence, 11th edition) and Hoffmann (Evidence, 2nd
edition) both point out the dangers inherent in expert testimony.
The inability of the court to verify the expert's conclusions
and the tendency of experts to be partisan and over-ready to find
and multiply confirmation of their theories from harmless facts are
problems that can easily occur when accepting expert evidence.
