New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

SUPREME COURT RULES 1970 - SECT 75.3J

75.3J Expert witnesses

(1) This rule and rule 3K apply to all criminal proceedings in the Court (including those specified in the Third Schedule to the Act).

(2) For the purposes of this rule and rule 3K:
"expert witness" means an expert engaged for the purpose of:

(a) providing a report as to his or her opinion for use as evidence in proceedings or proposed proceedings, or

(b) giving opinion evidence in proceedings or proposed proceedings.

"the code" means the expert witness code of conduct in Schedule 7 to the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 .

(3) Unless the Court otherwise orders:

(a) at or as soon as practicable after the engagement of an expert as a witness, whether to give oral evidence or to provide a report for use as evidence, the person engaging the expert must provide the expert with a copy of the code, and

(b) unless an expert witness’s report contains an acknowledgment by the expert witness that he or she has read the code and agrees to be bound by it:

(i) service of the report by the party who engaged the expert witness is not valid service for the purposes of the rules or of any order or practice note, and

(ii) the report is not to be admitted into evidence, and

(c) oral evidence is not to be received from an expert witness unless:

(i) he or she has acknowledged in writing, whether in a report relating to the proposed evidence or otherwise in relation to the proceedings, that he or she has read the code and agrees to be bound by it, and

(ii) a copy of the acknowledgment has been served on all parties affected by the evidence.

(4) If an expert witness furnishes to the engaging party a supplementary report, including any report indicating that the expert witness has changed his or her opinion on a material matter expressed in an earlier report by the expert witness:

(a) the engaging party must forthwith serve the supplementary report on all parties on whom the engaging party has served the earlier report, and

(b) the earlier report must not be used in the proceedings by the engaging party, or by any party in the same interest as the engaging party on the question to which the earlier report relates, unless paragraph (a) is complied with.

(5) This rule does not apply to an expert engaged before this rule commences.