ABSTRACT
The fundamental rule is that witnesses testify about facts of which they have perceived and not about the opinions they have formed from facts. The main reason for this is the idea that it is the job of the ‘tribunal of fact’ (a judge or, very occasionally, a jury in a civil case, and magistrates or a jury in a criminal case) to hear the evidence, find facts, and make inferences from them. For this reason a witness should not generally be asked to give his opinion, but witnesses often will give their opinion as a shorthand way of expressing the facts, for example to suggest the ‘car was driving too fast for the narrow lane’ (R v Windass [1989]). In civil cases, s 3(2) of the Civil Evidence Act 1972, a witness may give a statement of opinion on any matter, on which he is not qualified to give expert evidence, if that statement is made as a way of conveying relevant facts personally perceived by him.
