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BC Court of Appeal Clarifies Law of Hearsay Evidence in Expert Reports

Written by admin on . Posted in BCSC Civil Rule 11, Civil Procedure, Uncategorized. 127 Comments on BC Court of Appeal Clarifies Law of Hearsay Evidence in Expert Reports


Expert reports often contain hearsay evidence.  This is especially true in personal injury cases where expert witnesses review pages upon pages of clinical notes of other physicians in arriving at their opinions.  Today the BC Court of Appeal released useful reasons for judgement confirming that hearsay evidence does not render an expert report inadmissible.  The Court further noted that some types of hearsay evidence in expert reports, even if not independently proven at trial, does not necessarily nullify the experts opinion.
In today’s case (Mazur v. Lucas) the Plaintiff was injured in a 2006 BC motor vehicle collision.  At trial the Plaintiff tendered the report of a psychiatrist.  The trial judge ordered that hearsay portions of the report be redacted and did not permit opposing counsel to cross examine the expert with respect to the redacted portions of the report.  Ultimately the Jury awarded the Plaintiff $528,400 in damages.
The Defendant appealed arguing that the trial judge incorrectly redacted hearsay from the expert reports and unreasonably restricted the cross-examination.  The BC High Court agreed and ordered a new trial.  In doing so the Court repeated the following very useful quote from Mr. Justice Sopinka addressing the reality of hearsay in medical diagnosis:
“A physician, for example, daily determines questions of immense importance on the basis of the observations of colleagues, often in the form of second- or third-hand hearsay.  For a court to accord no weight to, or to exclude, this sort of professional judgment, arrived at in accordance with sound medical practices, would be to ignore the strong circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness that surround it, and would be, in my view, contrary to the approach this Court has taken to the analysis of hearsay evidence in general, exemplified in Ares v. Venner, [1970] S.C.R. 608”
The BC Court of Appeal went on to provide the following useful summary of hearsay evidence in expert reports in personal injury lawsuits:

[40]         From these authorities, I would summarize the law on this question as to the admissibility of expert reports containing hearsay evidence as follows:

·                 An expert witness may rely on a variety of sources and resources in opining on the question posed to him.  These may include his own intellectual resources, observations or tests, as well as his review of other experts’ observations and opinions, research and treatises, information from others – this list is not exhaustive.  (See Bryant, The Law of Evidence in Canada, at 834-835)

·                 An expert may rely on hearsay.  One common example in a personal injury context would be the observations of a radiologist contained in an x-ray report.  Another physician may consider it unnecessary to view the actual x-ray himself, preferring to rely on the radiologist’s report.

·                 The weight the trier of fact ultimately places on the opinion of the expert may depend on the degree to which the underlying assumptions have been proven by other admissible evidence.  The weight of the expert opinion may also depend on the reliability of the hearsay, where that hearsay is not proven by other admissible evidence.  Where the hearsay evidence (such as the opinion of other physicians) is an accepted means of decision making within that expert’s expertise, the hearsay may have greater reliability.

·                 The correct judicial response to the question of the admissibility of hearsay evidence in an expert opinion is not to withdraw the evidence from the trier of fact unless, of course, there are some other factors at play such that it will be prejudicial to one party, but rather to address the weight of the opinion and the reliability of the hearsay in an appropriate self-instruction or instruction to a jury.

[41]         The common law is supplemented by the Rules of Court concerning expert reports.  The Rules of Court in force at the time of this trial required an expert to state “the facts and assumptions upon which the opinion is based”.  (Rule 40A(5)(b)).  Rule 11-6(1) which replaces Rule 40A requires the expert to state:

…

(f) the expert’s reasons for his or her opinion, including

(i)  a description of the factual assumptions on which the opinion is based,

(ii)  a description of any research conducted by the expert that led him or her to form the opinion, and

(iii)  a list of every document, if any, relied on by the expert in forming the opinion.

[42]         New Rule 11-6 expands on what an expert was required to state under old Rule 40A, but does not alter the general principle that it is essential for the trier of fact to know the basis of an expert opinion so that the opinion can be evaluated.  The Rule has a dual purpose.  The second purpose is to allow the opposing party to know the basis of the expert’s opinion so that they or their counsel can properly prepare for, and conduct, cross-examination of the expert, and if appropriate, secure a responsive expert opinion.  Thus, the result of these reasons would be the same if this case had arisen under the new Rules.  There is nothing in these Rules touching directly on the question of the admissibility of hearsay evidence in expert reports.

I have previously written (here and here) that Plaintiff’s need to be wary if relying on a radiologists findings in support of a personal injury claim at trial and ensure that the evidence is independently proven at trial.  Today’s case appears to potentially soften this requirement somewhat.

More on BC Personal Injury Claims and Radiologists Evidence

Written by admin on . Posted in Civil Procedure, Uncategorized. 54 Comments on More on BC Personal Injury Claims and Radiologists Evidence


(Please note the topic discussed in this post should be reviewed keeping a subsequent October 2010 BC  Court of Appeal in mind)
Further to my previoius article on this topic, if you are advancing a BC Injury Claim and intend to rely on X-Rays, MRI’s or other diagnostic studies which demonstrate injury in support of your case it is vital that you serve the opposing party appropriate Notice under the Rules of Court.  Failure to give proper notice can keep not only the actual studies out of Court but also the opinions of radiologists discussing what these studies show.  Excluding such evidence can be fatal to a claim.  2 judgements were released today demonstrating this principle.
In the first case (Anderson v. Dwyer) the Plaintiff was injured in 2004 BC Car Crash.  At trial her lawyer attempted to put X-rays into evidence and to have a chiropractor give ‘evidence with respect to the contents of the x-rays‘.  The Defendant objected arguing that appropriate Notice of the proposed exhibit and the expert opinion was not given.  Mr. Justice Schultes agreed and in doing so gave the following reasons:





[3] The stated relevance of this evidence is that the x-rays taken after the accident will allegedly show some abnormality in some of the plaintiff’s vertebrae that could have been caused by the accident.  This, it is said, will rebut the defendant’s position that the plaintiff’s pain is largely the result of a degenerative condition rather than of the accident.

[4] The basis for the objection to Dr. Wooden’s evidence is that he is an expert witness and no notice of his evidence has been given as required by Rule 40A of the Rules of Court.  In addition, the defendant has not been given an opportunity to inspect the x-rays as required by Rule 40(13). ..

…While on the evidence by Dr. Wooden seeking to offer an opinion about the plaintiff’s injuries such as the inferences to be drawn from the observations in the x-rays or with respect to the cause or mechanism of the injury would be prohibited because of the plaintiff’s failure to comply with Rule 40A.


[16] As to the lack of compliance with Rule 40(13) the cases make it clear that in such circumstances the court has a discretion to admit the evidence (see, for example, Golden Capital Securities Ltd. v. Holmes, 2002 BCSC 516), but that in exercising its discretion it should take into account the absence of any proper explanation for the failure to disclose…

[17] In this case, the explanation is that counsel for the plaintiff thought it sufficient to simply notify the defendant of the existence of the x-rays and invite counsel to contact Dr. Wooden directly to inspect them.

[18] I do not think such a passive approach was sufficient.  The requirement in the Rule that the parties be “given the opportunity to inspect” an item connotes some positive action on the part of the party in possession of it.  At the very minimum, efforts should have been made by counsel for the plaintiff to facilitate the viewing of the x-rays.  It was not appropriate for the defendant to be invited to seek out the treating chiropractor himself even if consent by the plaintiff was said to be readily forthcoming.

[19] The very importance to her case ascribed by the plaintiff to the x-rays speaks to the necessity of her having obtained and disclosed copies of the exhibits in a proactive manner.

[20] There being no satisfactory explanation of the failure to comply with Rule 40(13) I decline to exercise my discretion to allow copies of the X-rays themselves to be admitted in evidence.  Because a witness may refresh his memory from anything that will assist him that process, even if that source itself is inadmissible (see R. v. Fliss, 2002 SCC 16 at para. 45) Dr. Wooden may refresh his memory by reviewing the x-rays should the need arise during his evidence.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

In the second case released today, Gregory v. ICBC, the Plaintiff wished to put an expert report into evidence that gave an opinion based on the assumption that “there has been a partial tear of (the Plaintiff’s) subscapularis tendon.”  The doctor relied on a radiologist’s interpretation of an MRI as the source of this opinion.  The radiologists report was not put into evidence and the radiologist was not called as a witness.
The Defence lawyer argued that the opinion of the expert should be inadmissible in these circumstances.  The Court agreed.  In doing so Madam Justice Kloegman gave the following reasons:

[3] Dr. Chu’s second report discloses that his opinion is based on an assumption   that there has been a partial tear of the subscapularis tendon.  The defendant takes issue with that alleged fact.  The plaintiff has taken no steps to prove the truth of this assumption.  Originally, she did not intend to enter the radiologist reports interpreting the MRI scans.  Now counsel advises that she could lead them through Dr. Chu.  However, all this would do is show the source of Dr. Chu’s assumption.  It would not prove the truth of the radiologist’s interpretation, which in effect is just another expert opinion.

[4] Although the radiologist reports are expert opinions, the plaintiff has not served them pursuant to Rule 40, nor has she given notice of any intention to call the radiologists.  Therefore, it is obvious that she does not intend to prove as a fact this assumption about the partial tear.  Dr. Chu’s second report is based solely on this assumption of a partial tear.  There will not be any evidence proving the truth of this assumption, therefore, any opinions that are based on the partial tear as the primary assumption must be considered irrelevant and inadmissible.

These cases illustrate that if you wish to prove an injury through diagnostic imaging care should be taken to ensure that appropriate witnesses are available to get the evidence before the Court and further that appropriate notice is given to opposing counsel.