ABSTRACT
The Court of Appeal found that the defence expert’s evidence would not have affected the jury’s decision and outcome. The Court in Frye held that expert testimony must be based on scientific methods that are sufficiently established and accepted. The responsibilities of the expert to keep the court informed of any material that may assist one party or undermine the expert’s findings, and to retain material so that another expert can replicate any assessment, will inevitably remain the same. The expert must then disclose the existence of their notes to the party calling them, and make them available for that party’s legal team to review and, as appropriate, disclose them to the other side. The scope of expert evidence must be appropriately limited to make sure that the proposed opinion does not go directly to the ultimate issue in the case and thus present the jury with a ready-made inference of guilt.
