Course Chairs
Wendy E. Dawson, QC — Crown Counsel, Ministry of Attorney General, New Westminster
Graham J. Underwood — Legal Services Branch, Ministry of Attorney General, Victoria
About the Course Chairs
Wendy Dawson, QC, has been employed by the Attorney General of BC for 35 years and has worked out of the New Westminster Regional office since 1992. In 2001 – 2006 she was a Consultant to the Unsolved Homicide section of the RCMP. In 2003, she was also assigned to assist in the Organized Crime Unit. For the last 26 years, she has been involved in major crime prosecutions, including murder cases, Dangerous Offender cases and countless sexual assault cases, many of which involved the calling of expert witnesses. Wendy has a passion for her work, legal research and presenting legal lectures. She frequently provides lectures to police on the law pertaining to Major Crime Investigations and “Undercover Operations.”
Graham J. Underwood is a barrister with the Province of BC’s Ministry of Justice and Attorney General. He has practised solely in the area of civil litigation for the Province for the past 19 years. Prior to that, he was a legal officer with the Judge Advocate General of the Canadian Armed forces and was in private practice for 14 years.
Graham’s interests include the law of evidence, and information management. He is the co-author of Electronic Evidence in Canada, which was published by Carswell in 2010. He is also a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars on litigation and information management in the public sector, and for CLEBC. Graham is the representative for the Province of BC on the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Working Group on e-Discovery, and a member of the Uniform Law Conference of Canada electronic discovery working group.
Faculty
The Honourable Mr. Justice Nathan H. Smith — Supreme Court of BC, Vancouver
C. Geoff Baragar, QC— Crown Counsel, Ministry of Attorney General, New Westminster
John D. Cliffe, QC — Cliffe Tobias Barristers & Solicitors, Vancouver
Richard S. Fowler, QC — Fowler and Blok, Vancouver
Nikos E. Harris — University of BC and Peck and Company, Vancouver
Claire E. Hunter — Hunter Litigation Chambers, Vancouver
Andrew MacDonald — Crown Counsel, Ministry of Attorney General, New Westminster
Winston L. Sayson, QC — Crown Counsel, Ministry of Attorney General, Surrey
Jonathan Van Netten — Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP, Vancouver
David J. Wallin — Whitelaw Twining Law Corporation, Vancouver
Online Moderator
Henry B. Waldock — Crown Counsel, Ministry of Attorney General, Chilliwack
Your guide to finding, using, and choosing an expert.
Expert Evidence in British Columbia Civil Proceedings—4th Edition
This publication is essential for: all civil litigators who work with expert witnesses.
Current to: July 1, 2015
Expert witnesses play a critical role in most civil cases—and litigators should know how to use them to their full advantage. Expert Evidence in BC Civil Proceedings will help you handle BC's distinctive expert evidence rules. Practical and portable, this softcover guidebook provides discussion, tactics, and tools so you can effectively choose, brief, call, and attack expert witnesses. In addition, this publication features a chapter on the view from the bench, so you can learn what makes a powerful expert opinion presentation in the eyes of a trial judge.
With this resource, you will be able to:
- identify when and how to use experts
- analyze how to lay the factual basis for an expert opinion
- present your experts without them losing credibility or appearing partisan
- better protect your expert on the witness stand
A few highlights of the fourth edition
- extensive discussion of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision, White Burgess Langille Inman v. Abbot and Haliburton Co., 2015 SCC 23 throughout the chapters
- updates throughout the chapters incorporating significant case law on expert evidence from the British Columbia and Ontario courts