Expert evidence: a practical guide

Legal context: expert witnesses now take part in many IP disputesand both experts and practitioners need to know the rules anddecisions affecting them. Key Points: we consider admissability of expert evidence, howto find an expert, appointment, how to change an expert, theexpert's duties, conflicts and the dangers of using an expert.It stresses the importance of finding an expert who knows thefield, will stick to it and communicates well. It is key notoversell or tempt the expert to oversell the evidence. Practitionersshould stay within the procedural rules, as mistakes can affectthe value of otherwise sound evidence. Practical significance: expert evidence is often decisive. Gettingit wrong can present a significant problem. English judges arenot slow to criticise any failure to meet the very high standardsthey expect of expert witnesses.     

Bureaucracy,organization culture and development

The first part of the paper discusses the concept of organizational culture and highlights its value as an aid to understanding the way organizations work. Using four basic models of organization culture (power, role, task and person) the paper then goes on to describe a questionnaire survey of cultures in development organizations. The questionnaire required two sets of responses: firstly an indication of preferred organization culture and secondly the respondents' perception of the way their organization actually works. Whilst the vast majority of respondents prefer task-orientated cultures, most actually perceive themselves to be operating in a role culture (bureaucracy), whilst a large minority perceives a power (political) culture. These results demonstrate an inherent tension in many people's working lives. They also indicate the necessity of taking into account the political environment of work when designing training courses; few organizations appear to operate in the rational way upon which many development techniques and practices are posited. In the final part of the paper there is discussion of the need to make a modification to the basic cultural models in order to make them particularly relevant to developing countries.