If you need an 'Expert Witness', choose them with great care!

Here is an experience I had this week from some work I was assigned to assist an Expert in glass concerning the specifics of glass container manufacturing and check over some of their assumptions.

BTW, for those not fully aware, an "expert witness" is taken as, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as an expert.

Therefore, when there are legal disagreements that surround a technical topic, people with such qualities may be drawn upon by a court to provide expertise that would otherwise be lacking.

I have always fancied being a part of such 'expert witness' work as it is another way to offer up a societal benefit from years of experience sweating away in a glass container manufacturing plant.

In the process of offering up my understanding, I was allowed to review some statements given by a seasoned 'expert witness' in the area of glass packaging (amongst other packaging mediums which they serve).

The name was familiar, and one I won't of course present here, but very well known in the industry I am assured. However, the content of their work to serve the legal team they were representing was quite shockingly inadequate.

Perhaps, to them, it was a great piece of work (very extensive) but they were clearly out of their depth in commenting on the details of the glass container manufacturing process as it relates to the particular problem matter.

Now, this is a serious case and a claim that I guess will result in several millions of Dollars/Euros/Pounds being awarded, or not.

The lesson here that I would like to share is that if a professional reading this ever needs an Expert Witness, choose them with great care.

I say this because this prominent figure in this area is apparently very competent in what he normally does but in this case, he has taken on something that I can quite easily provide a simple rebuttal for.

This is not his fault, but rather it is more the fault of those who selected the wrong branch of expertise to defend themselves with.

If you were to put me on a bottle filling line case to advise on the causes of a major problem, I am sure someone else would quite happily shoot my arguments down with their experience, even if a court might accept my status for some reason as an 'expert witness'.

However, in this case, I am quite happy to shoot down just such an 'expert witness' who has stepped out of their comfort zone but with seemingly too much confidence. I am very happy to provide factual information that will bring about real justice and which will prevent utter misinformation from prevailing.

I quite enjoyed that role this week. Something new. Very satisfying to be able to offer real help and clarity on an issue that was thus far not clear without the kind of experience I gained from years of working in a glass plant production environment.

Getting the right Expert Witness for the right task at hand sounds like common sense. Nevertheless, there is at least this one particular case that I have come across where that was not done.

Perhaps there needs to be an independent expert able to advise on the right team of experts to act as expert witnesses. Hopefully it is not going to be that complicated most of the time.

Time will tell to see how the case goes, but I would be utterly shocked and disappointed with the court if it went the way of the defences 'expert witness' statement I reviewed and rebutted.

Peter J Firth M.Sc.