Rules of Court 2021

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Published in Subsidiary Legislation Supplement
on 01 Dec 2021

Rules of Court 2021

Expert (O. 12, r. 1)

1.—(1) An expert is a person with scientific, technical or other specialised knowledge based on training, study or experience.

(2) An expert has the duty to assist the Court in the matters within his or her expertise and on the issues referred to him or her.

(3) The expert’s duty to the Court overrides any obligation to the person from whom the expert receives instructions or by whom the expert is paid.

Court to approve use of expert evidence (O. 12, r. 2)

2.—(1) No expert evidence may be used in Court unless the Court approves.

(2) The parties must consider whether expert evidence will contribute materially to the determination of any issue that relates to scientific, technical or other specialised knowledge and whether such issue can be resolved by an agreed statement of facts or by submissions based on mutually agreed materials.

(3) The Court must not approve the use of expert evidence unless it will contribute materially to the determination of any issue in the case and the issue cannot be resolved in the manner stated in paragraph (2).

(4) The Court may disallow the use of or reject any expert evidence if it is of the opinion that the expert lacks the requisite specialised knowledge in the issues referred to him or her or that he or she lacks impartiality.

Common expert, court expert and number of experts (O. 12, r. 3)

3.—(1) Subject to paragraph (5), as far as possible, parties must agree on one common expert.

(2) Except in a special case and with the Court’s approval, a party may not rely on expert evidence from more than one expert for any issue.

(3) In a special case, the Court may appoint a court expert in addition to or in place of the parties’ common expert or all the experts.

(4) The Court must give all appropriate directions relating to the appointment of experts, including the method of questioning in Court and the remuneration to be paid to them.

(5) Paragraphs (1) to (4) do not apply to any proceedings before a Magistrate’s Court or District Court where any question requiring the evidence of an expert witness arises in a case which the Court has directed to be set down for a simplified trial, and instead —

(a)

the parties must jointly appoint one independent expert to give the expert evidence in a written report; and

(b)

if the parties are unable to agree on the expert to be appointed —

(i)

the Court must —

(A)	make such orders or give such directions, in relation to the appointment of the expert, as the Court deems fit, including an order appointing the expert; and
(B)	fix the amount of renumeration payable to the expert; and

(ii)

the parties are jointly and severally liable to pay the expert the amount of remuneration fixed by the Court.

(6) Paragraph (5)(b)(ii) does not affect the discretion of the Court to make an order providing for the amount of remuneration payable to the expert to be part of the costs of the matter.

Issues and common set of facts (O. 12, r. 4)

4.—(1) The parties must agree on the list of issues to be referred for expert evidence and the common set of agreed or assumed facts that the experts are to rely on.

(2) The list of issues and the common set of agreed or assumed facts must be approved by the Court and unless the Court otherwise orders, the expert evidence must be confined to the approved issues and must rely on the common set of agreed or assumed facts only.

(3) If there is no agreement as mentioned in paragraph (1), the Court must decide the list of issues and the common set of agreed or assumed facts.

(4) As far as possible, the issues must be expressed in the form of questions which can be answered with “yes” or “no”.

Expert’s report (O. 12, r. 5)

5.—(1) Expert evidence must be given in a report signed by the expert and exhibited in an affidavit made by the expert.

(2) The expert’s report must include the following:

(a)

the expert’s qualifications showing that he or she has the requisite specialised knowledge on the issues referred to him or her;

(b)

the expert’s statement that he or she understands his or her duty is to assist the Court in the matters within his or her expertise and on the issues referred to him or her and that such duty to the Court overrides any obligation to the person from whom he or she receives instructions or by whom he or she is paid;

(c)

the issues referred to the expert and the common set of agreed or assumed facts that he or she relied on;

(d)

a list of the materials that the expert relied on and including only extracts of the materials which are necessary to understand the report;

(e)

where the materials include tests, experiments or the collection or analysis of data, the names and qualifications of the persons who did the tests, experiments or the collection or analysis of data and whether they did so under the expert’s supervision or guidance;

(f)

where there is a range of opinion on the matters dealt with in the report —

(i)	a summary of the range of opinion; and
(ii)	the reasons for the expert’s opinion;

(g)

a statement of belief of correctness of the expert’s opinion;

(h)

the conclusions reached on the issues referred to the expert and the reasons to support the conclusions.

Meeting, clarification on report and cross‑examination (O. 12, r. 6)

6.—(1) The Court may order the parties, their solicitors and the experts to meet before, during or after the making of the expert reports to try to narrow any dispute and so that the parties can agree in writing on all or some of the conclusions on the issues referred to the experts.

(2) Other than the contents of any agreement in writing, the contents of discussions at a meeting mentioned in paragraph (1) must not be used in Court unless the parties otherwise agree.

(3) With the Court’s approval, the parties may request in writing that an expert clarify his or her report in any aspect.

(4) Upon receipt of a request mentioned in paragraph (3), the expert must give his or her clarification in writing within the time specified by the Court and such clarification is deemed to be part of his or her report.

(5) The parties must consider whether the experts need to be cross‑examined in Court.

Panel of experts (O. 12, r. 7)

7.—(1) In a case where there is more than one expert, the Court may order that all or some of the experts testify as a panel.

(2) The panel of experts may testify before or after all or some of the non‑expert witnesses have testified.

(3) If the defendant’s expert testifies as a panel before the defendant or any of the defendant’s non‑expert witnesses has testified, the defendant is not deemed to have waived his or her right to submit that there is no case for him or her to answer at that stage of the hearing.

(4) Where the experts testify as a panel, the Court may order that they give their views on the issues referred to them and comment on one another’s views.

(5) The Court may order cross‑examination and re‑examination of all or some of the experts in the panel in any sequence as the Court thinks appropriate, whether before or after the experts have testified as a panel.

(6) The Court may give any other directions as are appropriate for the particular case.

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