Featured Articles – Expert Witness Features – page 21

Lethality and the law

EVERY TIME a firearms expert witness stands in the box in court and starts to give evidence, the old definition of a firearm gets trotted out: “a lethal barrelled weapon capable of discharging a…” (Section 57, Firearms Act 1968). And then the argument starts.

Whether or not a thing is a weapon is fairly easily distinguished, and certainly the presence or otherwise of a barrel should be easy enough to prove. However, the word ‘lethal’ is prone to a huge amount of usually misguided argument.

Pitching your style of testimony can make a difference

THE ROLE required of a noise consultant as expert witness cannot easily be defined. Different styles of expert testimony seem to be required in different forms of tribunal. Pitching this just right appears to be at least as important as the technical content of the evidence itself.

For example, in a recent noise abatement notice appeal heard by a district judge, there were several days of very detailed debate over the academic minutiae of noise measurement and analysis technique. On both sides noise consultants appeared convinced that the witness who was better able to defend the rigour of their methods would prevail.

How religious and ethnic issues can affect justice

THERE ARE SIX major religions in the world: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. There are many other religions with smaller numbers of followers, of course, and every religion has many sects, cults or subdivisions. Some sects, however, are non-religious groups.

Names often have religious identity. Any shortening or modification of names can be hurtful to a devoted religious person, even if he or she remains stoical. It may also have legal consequences.

The expert witness in the wet

Many cases relate to flooding issues that can arise from a multitude of causes, for example faulty drainage (either private drains or public sewers), surface water run-off from developments and changes to land use, inadequate highway drainage, obstructed watercourses and culverts and associated maintenance regimes. Natural fluvial flooding on flood plains is not often a cause for a dispute.

Sewage disposal problems are frequently in connection with poorly performing privately-owned treatment plants and septic tanks, particularly the associated soakaway systems which often turn out be incorrectly designed and constructed.

With asbestos, it’s defining the risk that’s the hard part

ASBESTOS FALLS into two distinct categories of legal work: the personal claims of those exposed in the past and the cases involving recent occurrences that result in civil or criminal proceedings.

The personal claims area is fairly straightforward for the expert, particularly as they are usually dealt with by specialist legal teams backed up by medical experts. The matter for the asbestos expert is quantification of exposure of the plaintiff in the work situations described and, though not an exact science, presents not too many difficulties.