Opinion Summary Sheet Flashcards
In accordance with Section 76 of the Evidence Act - Evidence of an opinion IS NOT admissible.
What are the three sections in the Evidence Act which are the exceptions to this rule?
Section 78 - Lay opinion
Section 79 - Expert opinion
Section 117 - Tendered Expert Certificate
Section 78 of the Evidence Act refers to unqualified opinion evidence.
What is required for Lay evidence to be admissible?
Lay opinion may be admissible if the opinion is based on what a person saw, hears or otherwise perceived about an event (must be Direct Evidence)
And it must be necessary to obtain an adequate account or understand of that person’s perception.
What are some of the things a witness may give substantiated lay evidence in relation to?
- The identity of an individual
- The authorship of handwriting
- Apparent age of a person
- Speed of a vehicle
- State of the weather
- Condition of a road or premises
- Condition of goods
- Sobriety of an individual
- Emotional state of a person
Etc.
What are the two categories of experts?
1) Industry experts or practitioners
2) Academics
What must a person have to be qualified as an expert in accordance with Section 79 of the Evidence Act?
The person has specialised knowledge based on the person’s training, study or experience;
The opinion rule does not apply to evidence of an opinion of that person that is wholly or substantially based on that knowledge.
At common law an expert must have knowledge from a ‘field of expertise’
They must be able to point to the use of accepted theories and techniques.
They must have either?
- Formal training or qualifications
And/Or - A suitable length if practical experience.
Always check their credentials.
Police and civilian analysts can be considered as ad-hoc expert witnesses. What is an example of such?
Where a person repeatedly listens to an audio recording over and over again to accurately transcribe it.
Or a person is trained to conduct data extractions on phones; then completes this task thousands of times over many years and analyses the data.
According to section 177 of the Evidence Act - Evidence if a persons opinion may be adduced by tendering a certificate.
In order to do so, what must be completed first?
- signed by the person
- it must state the persons name and address
- it must state their qualifications etc.
- set out their evidence and opinion
- serve a copy of the certificate and a written notice of intention to tender it at least 21 days before the hearing.
