Hot-tubbing, presentations and other gimmicks: How not to manage expert evidence

Christopher Ennis

October 2016

A paper presented to the Society of Construction Law for Africa conference in Cape Town 27th-28th October 2016

In this paper, the author, with considerable experience of acting as quantum expert and tribunal member, takes a critical look at hot-tubbing or 'expert witness conferencing', one of the methods that tribunals in the UK and around the world have developed for managing expert evidence. He also looks at experts' presentations, whether as part of the hot-tubbing process or evidence-in-chief, and their potential risk to independence. He considers varying perceptions of the rôle of the independent expert between civil and common law jurisdictions and their influence on management of expert evidence.He emphasises the importance of timely directions for experts' joint statements, and concludes with a discussion of appropriate styles of examination and cross-examination of expert witnesses arising from these topics.

Introduction - Expert's presentations - Hot-tubbing - The influence of different legal procedural traditions - Does traditional cross-examination do the job of testing the evidence properly anyway? - Conclusions.

The author: Christopher Ennis MSc FRICS FCIArb ia director of Time «Ä Quantum Expert Forensics Ltd and is currently chairman of the UK Society of Construction Law.

Text 10 pages.