T: 416-862-4836 email JulieView full profile.
T: 613-761-2424 email CharlesView full profile.
T: 416-862-4837 email RichardView full profile.
T: 613-217-8521 email John View full profile.
T: 416-862-4825 email MatthewView full profile.
T: 416-862-4826 email JohnView full profile.
T: 416-862-4820 email MarcView full profile.
T: 416-862-4831 email CarlView full profile.
T: 416-642-4874 email AlessiaView full profile.
T: 416-642-4877 email KipView full profile.
T: 416-642-4876 email SydneyView full profile.
T: 416-862-4823 email AmandaView full profile.
T: 416-862-4829 email AnandView full profile.
T: 416-862-4828 email JacquelynView full profile.
T: 416-862-4835 email JenniferView full profile.
T: 416-862-4830 email JoannaView full profile.
T: 416-642-4873 email LaurenView full profile.
Environment • Aboriginal • Energy
On January 29, 2015, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that counsel and their experts are permitted to confer in a way that does not interfere with an expert’s impartiality and meets the standards of conduct prescribed by both the expert’s and counsel’s respective professional regulating bodies. These communications do not need to be committed to writing to avoid increased delay and cost.
Counsel is to ensure that the expert: (1) understands its legal duty to the court; (2) complies with applicable rules of procedure and evidence; (3) produces an opinion that is relevant to the issues in dispute; and (4) prepares a report that is comprehensible for and useful to the court.
Communications between counsel and the expert will have the protection of litigation privilege unless there are reasonable grounds to suspect that counsel communicated with the expert in a way that is likely to interfere with the expert’s duties of independence and objectively. Only “the foundational information” that supports and underpins the opinion must be disclosed along with the expert’s report to be relied on at trial.
Click here to read the full article.