Expert Witness and Admissibility of expert's opinion in the courts

When you fall ill you trust a doctor's opinion, but you also ask for a second opinion if the stakes are high. A court does the same with an expert. It listens, asks for the reasons, lets the other side question the expert, and then decides whether to agree. This topic asks who counts as an expert witness, what makes an opinion admissible, and how far a court goes in relying on it.

In two minutes

An expert is a person specially skilled in the point before the court (BSA s.39); the opinion is admissible because the Act makes it a relevant fact, it must be given by the expert himself with his grounds (ss.45, 55), and the court, not the expert, decides how much weight it carries.

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