Federal Court Practice News - Practice direction: Guidelines for expert witnesses in proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia

IPRoo - Australian IP News: On 5 May 2008 the Chief Justice replaced the Practice Direction: Guidelines for Expert Witnesses in Proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia issued on 6 June 2007 with a new Practice Direction. A copy of the new Practice Direction is available from the Court’s web site.

The new Practice Direction addresses concerns that the previous version, expressly or impliedly, prevented a practitioner from using an expert to assist that practitioner to understand the field of expertise relevant to the issues in the proceeding and then calling that expert as a witness in the proceeding. In particular, a new paragraph has been added at the end of the Explanatory Memorandum which makes clear that the Practice Direction is not intended to require the retention of more than one expert on the same subject matter.


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