Summary of Supreme Court Rule 38 – Expert Reports

(Applies only to actions commenced before 4 September 2006)

Put simply, Rule 38.01(7) of the South Australian Supreme Court Rules (1987) states that in order for a party to adduce expert evidence at a trial, the following requirements must be complied with:

(i) the expert must have been provided with a copy of the above practice direction (entitled “Guidelines for expert witnesses in proceedings in the Supreme Court of South Australia) before preparing the expert report;

(ii) the expert must include an acknowledgement at the commencement of the report that he/she has read the above practice direction prior to preparing the report;

(iii) the substance of the expert’s report, the qualifications of the expert and particulars identifying the material upon which the expert has based his/her expert opinion must be set out in the report.

Where the matters referred to in (iii) above are not fully set out in the report, particulars in writing setting out those matters must be delivered to all parties

Rule 38.01A applies to actions in which the pleadings have closed on or after 3 June 2000, and to such other actions as the Court directs.

Subsection (2) provides that any expert report obtained by a party must:

(a) set out with reasonable particularity all of the qualifications of the expert which are relied upon to qualify him or her to give the report;

(b) set out separately each of the factual findings or assumptions upon which the opinions are based;

(d) comply with any Practice Direction published about the contents and form of reports from experts.

Subsection (3) provides that subsequent reports only need to refer to a previous report from that expert and where any part of the previous report remains unchanged, it does not need to be repeated.