Cases - Anglo Group plc v Winther Brown & Co

Record details

Name
Anglo Group plc v Winther Brown & Co
Date
[2000]; [2002]
Citation
EWHC Technology 127; 72 Con LR 118, T&CC
Legislation

Civil Procedure Rules 1998

Keywords
Expert witness - Civil Procedure Rules
Summary

In a dispute over the sale of a computer system, the Technology and Construction Court took the opportunity to set out the role and duties of expert witnesses post-CPR. This was said to be an extension of the position set out in The Ikarian Reefer.

'Dispute resolution in the course of the procedure may be achieved with assistance outside the court procedure by way of independent mediation, but it may also be achieved by techniques of case management ... e.g. by "without prejudice" meetings of experts, joint statements of experts setting out the matters on which they agree or disagree, early neutral evaluation or by the appointment of a single jointly appointed expert who may effectively resolve the technical issue or issues which are preventing the parties from settling their disputes ...'

Further:

  1. 'An expert witness should at all stages in the procedure, on the basis of the evidence as he understands it, provide independent assistance to the court and the parties by way of objective, unbiased opinion in relation to matters within his expertise. This applies as much to the initial meetings of experts as to evidence at trial. An expert witness should never assume the role of an advocate.
  2. The expert's evidence should normally be confined to technical matters on which the court will be assisted by receiving an explanation, or to evidence of common professional practice. The expert witness should not give evidence or opinions as to what the expert himself would have done in similar circumstances or otherwise seek to usurp the role of the judge.
  3. He should co-operate with the expert of the other party or parties in attempting to narrow the technical issues in dispute at the earliest possible stage of the procedure and to eliminate or place in context any peripheral issues. He should co-operate with the other expert(s) in attending without prejudice meetings as necessary and in seeking to find areas of agreement and to define precisely areas of disagreement to be set out in the joint statement of experts ordered by the court.
  4. The expert evidence presented to the court should be, and be seen to be, the independent product of the expert uninfluenced as to form or content by the exigencies of the litigation.
  5. An expert witness should state the facts or assumptions on which the opinion is based. He should not omit to consider material facts which could detract from his concluded opinion.
  6. An expert witness should make it clear when a particular question or issue falls outside his expertise.
  7. Where an expert is of the opinion that his conclusions are based on inadequate factual information, he should say so explicitly.
  8. An expert should be ready to reconsider his opinion, and if appropriate, to change his mind when he has received new information or has considered the opinion of the other expert. He should do so at the earliest opportunity.

... the new Civil Procedure Rules underline the existing duty which an expert owes to the Court as well as to the party which he represents'.

See also Stevens v Gullis.

'It needs to be recognised that a failure to take such an independent approach is not in the interest of the clients who retain the expert, since an expert taking a partisan approach, resulting in a failure to resolve before trial or at trial issues on which experts should agree, inflates the cost of resolving the dispute and may prevent the parties from resolving their disputes long before trial.'