Witness in a HC Injuries Case

Maidhci

I expect to be called as a non-expert witness, appearing for the plaintiff, in a High Court injuries case in the coming weeks. I do not know what practices prevail in these instances, therefore it would be much appreciated if someone here could offer any assistance / advice, in respect of the following aspects:

Is it normal for a witness to be briefed by the plaintiffs' solicitor in advance of a hearing?

Is it normal for a witness to be given access to expert reports, such as engineers' reports, both defence and plaintiffs, in advance of a hearing?

Obviously, I would consider that this could be a challenging experience and am anxious in case my views / opinions in the case may not be in accordance or inconsistent with those of the plaintiffs, in which case, there would be no point in appearing.

P. Breathnach

I see an implication that you want your evidence to favour the plaintiff, perhaps even to the point of tailoring it for that purpose.

That's not what you are supposed to do. You should tell the court what you saw or know - nothing else.

nuac

As P Breathnach says

The solicitor who contacted you may have taken a statement from you, and will give your a copy of it if you did not retain in.

That solicitor the barrister retained may want a quick consultation at the courthouse before the trial

Maidhci

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I see an implication that you want your evidence to favour the plaintiff, perhaps even to the point of tailoring it for that purpose.

That's not what you are supposed to do. You should tell the court what you saw or know - nothing else.

That is absolutely not the case, there is no such implication in my post - please read the final sentence. I am taking this matter extrememly seriously and know my obligations to the Court.

However, I am also aware that there is no obligation on me to attend as a witness and that is the route I would take if there was fundamental disagreement between between my views with those of the plaintiffs.

Maidhci

nuac wrote: »

As P Breathnach says

The solicitor who contacted you may have taken a statement from you, and will give your a copy of it if you did not retain in.

That solicitor the barrister retained may want a quick consultation at the courthouse before the trial

The solicitor who contacted me did not take a statement, we had a general discussion but that was the extent of it. During that conversation, I expressed a view that it would be useful to peruse the engineers' reports prior to the hearing, in order to prepare myself for the likely areas that I would be questioned upon.

ohnonotgmail

Maidhci wrote: »

The solicitor who contacted me did not take a statement, we had a general discussion but that was the extent of it. During that conversation, I expressed a view that it would be useful to peruse the engineers' reports prior to the hearing, in order to prepare myself for the likely areas that I would be questioned upon.

if you are a non-expert witness why would the engineers report be of value to you? just go along and tell them what you know. Seeing an engineers report might bias what you say. i cant imagine either side giving them to you.

234

Maidhci wrote: »

The solicitor who contacted me did not take a statement, we had a general discussion but that was the extent of it. During that conversation, I expressed a view that it would be useful to peruse the engineers' reports prior to the hearing, in order to prepare myself for the likely areas that I would be questioned upon.

You will not be permitted to comment on the matters in the engineers report unless you have first hand knowledge of them, and if you do there is no need to see tge report.

You are only permitted to relate facts which are within your own knowledge. Therefore you wont be "briefed" on the plaintiffs case or told the content of other witnesses statements. For obvious reasons this may influence your own evidence which is not desirable.

You might be given a brief outline of the areas that you will be questioned on. Normal practice will be for you to give a detailed witness statement to the plaintiffs solicitor in advance.

P. Breathnach

Maidhci wrote: »

That is absolutely not the case, there is no such implication in my post - please read the final sentence. I am taking this matter extrememly seriously and know my obligations to the Court.

However, I am also aware that there is no obligation on me to attend as a witness and that is the route I would take if there was fundamental disagreement between between my views with those of the plaintiffs.

If you are called as a witness, it is on the basis that you have some relevant knowledge of the facts. If the knowledge is to the advantage of the plaintiff, you are willing to give it to the court; if, in your opinion, it is not to the advantage of the plaintiff, you do not want to give it to the court.

Maidhci

234 wrote: »

You will not be permitted to comment on the matters in the engineers report unless you have first hand knowledge of them, and if you do there is no need to see tge report.

You are only permitted to relate facts which are within your own knowledge. Therefore you wont be "briefed" on the plaintiffs case or told the content of other witnesses statements. For obvious reasons this may influence your own evidence which is not desirable.

You might be given a brief outline of the areas that you will be questioned on. Normal practice will be for you to give a detailed witness statement to the plaintiffs solicitor in advance.

Thank you for this - very helpful and much appreciated.

coylemj

Maidhci wrote: »

The solicitor who contacted me did not take a statement, we had a general discussion but that was the extent of it. During that conversation, I expressed a view that it would be useful to peruse the engineers' reports prior to the hearing, in order to prepare myself for the likely areas that I would be questioned upon.

Based on your eagerness to be suitably 'prepared', the solicitor may have formed the view that you would come across as grossly biased in the witness box and that's why he/she didn't take a statement from you. As a non-expert witness, your only role is as an eye-witness so you simply say what you saw and heard, that's all.

Judges tend to believe witnesses who give honest and straight answers to questions. If you come across as too eager to give an answer that suits your friend's case, the judge will quickly spot this and your evidence could do more harm than good.

I'd say they have no intention of calling you as a witness, otherwise the solicitor would have taken a written statement and that would have been passed to your friend's counsel as part of the brief. No way is a barrister going to put you in the witness box without having read a statement from you.