The Armed Forces (Court Martial) Rules 2009

CHAPTER 5Expert evidence

Expert evidence

88.—(1) Expert evidence shall not be adduced without the leave of the judge advocate unless the party proposing to rely on it has served on every other party and the court administration officer, not less than 14 days before the date appointed for the commencement of the proceedings, a statement of the substance of the expert evidence.

(2) The statement referred to in paragraph (1) must be in writing unless every other party consents to its being made orally.

(3) Where more than one party wishes to introduce expert evidence, the judge advocate may direct the experts to—

(a)discuss the expert issues in the proceedings; and

(b)prepare a statement for the court of the matters on which they agree and disagree, giving their reasons.

(4) Except for the statement prepared under paragraph (3)(b), the content of the discussion under paragraph (3)(a) may not be referred to without the judge advocate’s permission.

(5) Where more than one defendant wishes to introduce expert evidence on an issue, the judge advocate may direct that the evidence on that issue is to be given by one expert only.

(6) Where the defendants cannot agree who should be the expert to give evidence under paragraph (5), the judge advocate may—

(a)select the expert from a list prepared or identified by them; or

(b)direct that the expert be selected in such other manner as the judge advocate shall direct.

(7) Where the judge advocate gives a direction under paragraph (5) for a single joint expert to be used, each of the defendants may give instructions to the expert.

(8) When a defendant gives instructions to an expert under paragraph (7) he must, at the same time, send a copy of the instructions to every other defendant.

(9) Where—

(a)a statement has been prepared for the purposes of proceedings, and

(b)the person who prepared the statement had, or may reasonably be supposed to have had, personal knowledge of the matters stated,

a statement served under paragraph (1) may be accompanied by a notice, given for the purposes of section 127 of the 2003 Act (expert evidence: preparatory work), that another person will in evidence given in the proceedings (whether orally or under section 9 of the 1967 Act, as applied by rule 75) base an opinion or inference on the statement.