Reflective Thinking Task
– Blog #4
It
is extremely important for a forensic accounting expert witness to be well
trained, educated and not be partisan.
I
am very interested in a career as a forensic accounting expert witness, and
therefore have been completing research into the profession, including example
cases where expert opinions have been discredited (and why). I recently came across two interesting cases.
The
first case was Makita (Australia) Pty Ltd
v Sprowles. The plaintiff stated
she fell down a set of stairs at her work place and Professor Morton, the
expert witness, provided his opinion that this was due to the stairs being
slippery. This case has been heavily
reviewed as to whether this expert opinion should have been accepted by the
trial judge despite overwhelming contradicting evidence, (Supreme Court of NSW,
2001).
According
to Kumar, an experts opinion is a reasoned conclusion drawn from ‘specialised
knowledge’, based upon the facts of which the expert has observed (facts of the
case), (2011). An expert witness must be
able to prove to the court that they have the appropriate qualifications,
education, training etc. to be providing expert opinions.
Further
into my research, relating to the Van
Oord UK Ltd & Anr v Allseas UK Ltd case, the expert witness’s opinion,
provided by Mr Lester, was completely disregarded due to extreme bias. The
acting judge stated that his evidence presented in court, along with his expert
witness report was “entirely worthless”
and that he was simply a “mouthpiece”
for the claimants, (Hodge, 2016).
Tom
Aslin, a partner at Kingston Smith, and an accounting expert witness, stated
that “the Van Oord case is a reminder
that expert witnesses need to retain their duty of independence to the court rather
than act as an advocate for the party that has appointed them”, (Hodge,
2016).
References
Hodge,
N. (2016). When expert witnesses get it wrong. Forensic an Expert Witness Group. Retrieved from http://www.icaew.com/en/archive/technical/legal-and-regulatory/forensic/expert-witness/when-expert-witnesses-get-it-wrong
Kumar,
M. (2011). Admissibility of Expert Evidence; Proving the Basis for an Expert’s
Opinion. Sydney Law Review 33(3) 427-447. Retrieved from http://search.informit.com.au.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/fullText;res=AGISPT;dn=20115175
Supreme
Court of New South Wales – Court of Appeal.
(2001). Makita (Australia) Pty Ltd v Sprowles [2001] NSWCA 305 (14 September
2001). Retrieved from http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/nsw/NSWCA/2001/305.html
Useful Link
Check
out this article about a toxicologist in America who is thought to have
lied on the stand as an expert witness in over 33 cases:
No comments:
Post a Comment