Section 23.15 of the Federal Court Rules and Forensic Accountants?

The court has introduced rules into the Federal Court Rules (2011); section 23.15 which state if at least two expert witnesses are involved in a case, they can confer on their reports and only bring to court items on which they disagree on, disregarding all items they agree on. This most importantly, reduces time wastage in court. Also, this approach can reduce bias of the expert witness as they are forced to deliberate with the opposite sides expert witness (Reifert, E., 2011). This helps experts with the expectation of them working for the court and help them to adopt a partisan position (Pannone, 2015). Also, by having expert's confer with each it can confirm the expertise and correctness of the experts reports.  

Section 23.15 provides the Court with control to receive expert’s evidence in particular ways, most commonly, the ‘hot tub’ style, which requires expert’s to give evidence concurrently (Lander, B., 2011). As with all governing laws with giving evidence, this section of the Federal Court Rules 2011 is enforceable and should be understood among all forensic accountants wishing to become expert witnesses.  

With my experience of working in group assignments as a student of QUT, I can relate to this rule in particular as you need to be able to present your work to other colleagues and stand by what you have written. You also have to be able to work with others to get the job done.

To help a first time forensic accountant expert adopt to this section with the Federal Court Rules, I would suggest to:

• Remain Partisan
• Stand by your work
• Work with the other expert/s to present your disagreements to the court

Relevant Links:

Section 23.15 of the Federal Court Rules (2011)


References:

Lander, B. (2011). Justice Lander Presents the Federal Court Rules. Retrieved from http://www.hearsay.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1116&Itemid=4

Pannone. (2015). Hot Tubbing for Expert Witness?. Retrieved from http://www.pannone.com/media-centre/articles/medical-negligence-articles/hot-tubbing-for-expert-witnesses

Reifert, E. (2011). Getting into the hot tub: How the united states could benefit from australia's concept of "hot tubbing" expert witnesses. University of Detroit Mercy Law Review, 89(1), 103. Retrieved from http://heinonline.org.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/udetmr89&collection=journals&page=103