Martin Burns reflects on the ever-changing role & duties of the expert witness
- Being a technical expert does not necessarily make someone a good expert witness.
The use of experts to inform legal proceedings is nothing new. The ancient Romans, for example, occasionally employed handwriting specialists and land surveyors as legal experts. However, the systematic use of expert witnesses, and the routine admissibility of their testimony and subject matter expertise, really began to develop properly from around 250 years ago.
The model we recognise today whereby an expert witness is permitted to testify in court and provide opinion evidence can be traced to 1772. In the case of Folkes v Chadd, a civil engineer by the name of John Smeaton was instructed to provide testimony about technical issues concerning the development of a harbour at Wells-Next-The-Sea in Norfolk. The court’s decision in 1772, to use Smeaton’s opinion evidence to inform its substantive decision, was a starting point for a continuous expansion of expert testimony in court and other proceedings.
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