Overriding Duty
Definition
The expert's primary obligation to give the court an honest, objective, and complete account of the evidence, regardless of the interests of the instructing party. Codified in procedural rules in many jurisdictions and recognised in case law in others.
- Definition
- Expert's primary obligation to the court over the instructing party
- Requires
- Honest, objective, and complete account of the evidence
- Legal status
- Codified in procedural rules in many jurisdictions
- Context
- The expert report: structure and duties
Common questions
What happens if an expert's overriding duty conflicts with the retaining party's wishes?+
The duty to the court takes precedence, meaning the expert must report findings and opinions accurately even when they are unfavourable to the party that engaged them, and may need to decline instructions that would require otherwise.
Is the overriding duty the same in every legal system?+
The underlying principle of independence is broadly shared, but its formal expression differs: some jurisdictions codify it explicitly in civil procedure rules, while others rely on case law and professional ethical codes to establish the same obligation.
Related terms
- Concurrent Evidence
- Also called 'hot-tubbing': a procedure, common in Australian courts and used experimentally in England, where opposing experts give evidence simultaneously, respond to...
- Instructions
- The written brief given to the expert that defines the questions they are asked to address, the materials they are given, and...
- Likelihood Ratio (LR)
- The ratio of two conditional probabilities: the probability of the observed evidence given the prosecution's hypothesis (same source), divided by the probability...
- Single Joint Expert (SJE)
- An expert appointed by a court or agreed by both parties to provide a single neutral opinion rather than one expert per...
- Statement of Limitations
- A section of the report that identifies factors constraining the reliability or completeness of the opinion, including sample quality, missing data, unvalidated...