Singapore International Commercial Court Rules 2021

ORDER 14

EXPERT EVIDENCE, ASSESSORS AND
INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

Expert (O. 14, 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 the expert’s expertise and on the issues referred to the expert.

(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 grant permission for use of expert evidence (O. 14, r. 2)

2.—(1) No expert evidence may be adduced in Court unless the Court grants permission.

(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 submission based on mutually agreed materials.

(3) The Court may grant permission for the use of expert evidence only if it will contribute materially to the determination of any issue in the case and the issue cannot be resolved as stated in paragraph (2).

(4) The Court may at any time on its own motion, or upon the application of a party, make any orders or directions in relation to the use of expert evidence, including as to —

(a)	the appointment of Court experts and common experts;
(b)	the sequential or simultaneous exchange of the experts’ witness statements;
(c)	the method of questioning of any expert, including by any order made pursuant to Rule 6;
(d)	the remuneration to be paid to Court experts or common experts; and
(e)	the disallowance or rejection of any expert evidence.

Issues and common set of facts (O. 14, r. 3)

3.—(1) The parties must attempt to agree on —

(a)	the list of issues to be referred for expert evidence, which must as far as possible be expressed in the form of questions which can be answered with “yes” or “no”; and
(b)	the common set of agreed or assumed facts that the experts are to rely on.

(2) Any list of issues and the common set of agreed or assumed facts agreed between the parties requires the Court’s approval.

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

(4) The expert evidence must be confined to the approved issues and must rely only on the approved common set of agreed or assumed facts.

Expert’s report (O. 14, r. 4)

4.—(1) Expert evidence must be given in a report signed by the expert and exhibited in a witness statement made by the expert.

(2) The statement of truth contained in the expert’s witness statement must state that —

(a)

the expert has made clear —

(i)	which facts in the expert’s report are within the expert’s own knowledge, and that the expert believes these facts to be true; and
(ii)	which facts referred to in the expert’s report are assumptions based on the instructions provided to the expert; and

(b)

the opinions expressed by the expert represent the expert’s true and complete professional opinion, and the expert accepts full responsibility for them.

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

(a)

the expert’s qualifications showing that the expert has the requisite specialised knowledge in relation to the issues referred to the expert;

(b)

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

(c)

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

(d)

the list of the materials that the expert relied on and 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 name 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)

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

Meeting and clarification on report (O. 14, r. 5)

5.—(1) The Court may order the experts to meet at any time to try to narrow any dispute and so that the experts 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) may not be used in Court unless the parties otherwise agree.

(3) With the Court’s permission, a party may request in writing that an expert clarify that expert’s report in any aspect.

(4) The expert must give the clarification requested under paragraph (3) in writing within the time ordered by the Court and such clarification is deemed to be part of the expert’s report.

Panel of experts (O. 14, r. 6)

6.—(1) 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) A party is not deemed to have waived any right to submit that the party has no case to answer merely because the party’s expert has testified in accordance with this Rule before the party’s non‑expert witnesses have testified.

(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.

Assessors (O. 14, r. 7)

7. The Court may, on its own motion or upon application by any party, appoint one or more assessors and give directions in relation to such assessors, including on —

(a)	any objections to a proposed assessor; and
(b)	the role and the remuneration of the assessors.

Independent counsel (O. 14, r. 8)

8.—(1) The Court may, on its own accord, appoint one or more independent counsel (previously referred to as “amicus curiae”) to assist the Court in any matter on specific issues of law.

(2) An independent counsel may be —

(a)	a counsel;
(b)	an academic involved in the teaching of law at present or in the past; or
(c)	a person who has special knowledge or experience in any area of law.

(3) The Court must give directions to the independent counsel on —

(a)	the specific issues of law to be addressed by the independent counsel;
(b)	the filing and service of written submissions by the independent counsel and the parties; and
(c)	the independent counsel’s attendance in Court to make oral submissions.

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