Expert Witness

Daniel Johnston & Co., Inc. has provided expert testimony in disputes on every continent. Some disputes involve the contractual relationship between oil companies and governments and other involve oil companies involved in joint operating agreements and/or farmout/farmin agreements.

The nature of our testimony focuses on (1) valuations and damages assessments and/or (2) industry standards and practices. Often when competing views exist regarding contract interpretation we provide testimony about which interpretation is best supported by based economic logic and which interpretation best aligns the interests of all parties or stakeholders. This can often drive a wedge of clarity into a dispute over contract interpretation.

Our valuation work (often for potential damages) involves the value of license rights, production operations, LNG projects/facilities, and corporate appraisals.

Summary of Expert Testimony Work

Daniel Johnston has worked on and/or provided expert testimony on economic, financial and accounting issues and industry standards and practices in disputes in the following locations worldwide:

  • The Supreme Court of India
  • International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce
  • International Court of Justice in The Hague
  • London Court of International Arbitration
  • Republic of Palau Senate and House of Representatives
  • High Court in Wellington, New Zealand
  • Supreme Council of the Kingdom of Bahrain
  • Justice Department of Canada
  • Alaska Senate and House Natural Resources and Finance Committees
  • Supreme Court of Gibraltar
  • Czech Chamber of Commerce
  • United States District Court (Southern District of New York)
  • 334th District Court of Harris County, TX
  • Turkmenistan
  • Vienna, Austria
  • Brussels, Belgium
  • Myanmar
  • Equitorial Guinea
  • Paris, France
  • Australia
  • California
  • Indonesia
  • East Timor
  • Kazakhstan
  • Vietnam
  • China
  • Gabon
  • the Czech Republic
  • New Zealand
  • Russia
  • Turkmenistan
  • Peru
  • Jordan
  • Venezuela
  • Yemen

Code of Conduct for Expert Witnesses

History:

This Schedule was inserted by the High Court Amendment Rules 2002, R 25 and Schedule 2, effective 1 July 2002. New Zealand.

Duty to the Court

  1. An expert witness has an overriding duty to assist the Court impartially on relevant matters within the expert's area of expertise.
  2. An expert witness is not an advocate for the party who engages the witness.

Evidence of expert witness

  1. In any evidence given by an expert witness, the expert witness must -
    1. Acknowledge that the expert witness has read this Code of Conduct and agrees to comply with it:
    2. Sate the expert witness' qualifications as an expert:
    3. State the issues the evidence of the expert witness addresses and that the evidence is within the expert's area of expertise:
    4. State the facts and assumptions on which the opinions of the expert witness are based:
    5. State the reasons for the opinions given by the expert witness:
    6. Specify any literature or other material used or relied on in support of the opinions expressed by the expert witness:
    7. Describe any examinations, tests, or other investigations on which the expert witness has relied and identify, and give details of the qualifications of, any person who carried them out.
  2. If an expert witness believes that his or her evidence or any part of it may be incomplete or inaccurate without some qualification, that qualification must be stated in his or her evidence.
  3. If an expert witness believes that his or her opinion is not a concluded opinion because of insufficient research or data or for any other reason, this must be stated in his or her evidence.

Duty to confer

  1. An expert witness must comply with any direction of the Court to -
    1. Confer with another expert witness:
    2. Try to reach agreement with the other expert witness on matters within the field of expertise of the expert witness:
    3. Prepare and sign a joint witness statement stating the matters on which the expert witnesses agree and the matters on which they do not agree, including the reasons for their disagreement.
  2. In conferring with another expert witness, the expert witness must exercise independent and professional judgment and must not act on the instructions or directions of any person to withhold or avoid agreement.

Clerk of the Executive Council.



Psychologists Wear Thin on Lawmakers
By Doug Robarchek
Knight-Ridder Newspapers

Do you get the feeling that when psychologists testify in court as "expert witnesses," there's the odor of voodoo about them?

New Mexico State Sen. Duncan Scott thinks so. He proposed amending a bill so that psychologists would be required to wear cone-shaped wizard hats with stars and lightning bolts on them when they testify, according to the Western Journalism Center in Fair Oaks, California.

Dallas Morning News - 27 January, 1997

The amendment also would have required psychologists to wear long beards and carry wands in court. The bailiff would have been ordered to dim the courtroom lights and strike a Chinese gong during testimony.

What's more - we love this - the bill passed both houses of the New Mexico legislature. Unfortunately, the governor vetoed it.

-Distributed by Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire