Expert suggests Google would probably give the court a better answer than him

 

Summary

The claimant alleged both negligence and breach of contract by the defendant designer of a container park near Felixstowe Port. The judge set out the reasons why she was not impressed by the claimant’s expert and treated his evidence with significant caution.

Learning points

Learning points for experts

• You should provide sufficient explanation in your report, and under cross-examination, of your analysis for the court to be able to understand your opinion and the basis for it, including:

  • what the analysis is,

  • how it works,

  • whether there were any limitations to its use or the outcome it produced.

• Do not suggest to the court that Google could provide a better explanation than you could of a term or methodology in your report.

• Make sure you use the correct, up-to-date (at the time of the events) version of any guidance you rely on.

• Make sure you understand the correct legal tests and ask yourself, and answer, the correct questions in your report.

• If you decide to base your report on an earlier draft, make sure it is completely updated to reflect the position of the case and your instructions.

• Make sure you respond to all of the allegations and don’t try to “simplify” your report by only responding to what you consider to be the key issue.

• If you consider your report was impacted by time or cost constraints, clearly set out what the constraints were and what impact they had.  

• If you need to rerun your analysis or change any parameters to address criticism, make sure you inform the parties and the court about what you have done as soon as practical.

Learning points for expert engineers

• Be wary of using analysis methodologies which would not be used by a competent engineer in a project of the type you are considering.

• It may be preferable to seek to explain elements of the design and perform hand calculations of the various factors which would influence the design in the same way that an ordinary engineer faced with a design of this sort would in practice.

Learning points for instructing parties

• Try to ensure that the expert you instruct has sufficient experience dealing with the type of work about which their opinion is being sought.

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