The exclusion of expert evidence as inadmissible duplicative hearsay evidence - Nancy Kelehar, Temple Garden Chambers
30/10/23. Crypto Open Patent Alliance v Wright [2023] EWHC 2408 (Ch), Date of Judgment: 03/10/2023. This case is one of several strands of litigation that relate to Dr Craig Wright’s claim to be the creator of the Bitcoin system. This High Court judgment has been given following a Case Management Conference in which there were five applications before the court. Of wider importance in terms of civil procedure is Mr Justice Mellor’s decision in relation to Dr Wright’s application to exclude hearsay evidence sought to be adduced by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA).
A previous order in these proceedings granted permission to adduce expert evidence – limited to one expert per party – in the field of forensic documents analysis. COPA subsequently served hearsay notices under the Civil Evidence Act 1995 (CEA) in respect of 7 further expert reports, two of which were particularly dense documents running to several hundred pages with various detailed appendices.
In opposition, Dr Wright submitted that COPA was effectively seeking to rely at trial on expert evidence of three experts in the same discipline. It was conceded by COPA that the primary relevance of the further reports was their alignment and corroboration of the conclusions of their...
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