Hot tubbing at trial
August 13, 2008
The term “hot tubbing” doesn’t just apply to time spent in a warm tub with a few of your closest friends anymore. It is also a way to present expert testimony at trial.
According to a New York Times article — one in a series on the American legal system — the U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that uses “partisan” experts, hired by each side, in criminal and civil trials.
Australians, by contrast, have developed a procedure dubbed “hot tubbing.” Partisan experts are still used, but they testify together at trial. They discuss the case and answer questions from the judge and lawyers, as well as questions posed to each other.
Justice Peter McClellan of the Land and Environmental Court of New South Wales says that when experts are hot tubbing, “[y]ou can feel the release of the tension which normally infects the evidence-gathering process.”
Same goes for that bubbly tub experience.
CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Editor
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