Legal Blog

Expert Evidence

Bruff-Murphy v. Gunawardena 2017 Ont CA

A trial judge’s gatekeeper function for expert witnesses does not stop once the expert has been qualified as expert capable of giving testimony. It continues while the testimony is being given. In this case, the trial judge recognised that the expert had crossed the line from objective witness to defence advocate in a personal injury jury trial and did not exclude the evidence or alert the jury to the problems with it. The court allowed the appeal and ordered a new trial. The court did agree that the plaintiff’s lawyer was not allowed to cross-examine the expert on the other cases in which the expert’s testimony was criticised by a trial judge.

Written by Jonathan Speigel Jonathan Speigel, the founding partner of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP, leads the litigation and construction practices.