Baxter v Willis (No 4)

[2026] NSWSC 1058

Supreme Court of NSW

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

1. EVIDENCE — admissibility of evidence — expert evidence — whether expert report is inadmissible on the basis that it does not disclose the identity of each and every person employed at or engaged by the firm of the principal in whose name the report is authored
1. EVIDENCE — prejudicial evidence — whether documents exhibited to expert report should be subject to limitation pursuant to s 136 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW)

A forensic accountant who is the principal of a firm is not required to disclose the identity and qualifications of every employee or staff member (such as bookkeepers performing data entry) who contributed to the preparation of an expert report in order for that report to be admissible.
A chartered accountant possesses sufficient expertise to give evidence about calculations performed using standard accounting and computing software (such as Microsoft Excel macros and PDF data extraction tools), and is not required to be an information technology expert for that purpose.
Counsel who puts to an experienced expert witness that the witness is fabricating evidence must have a proper foundation for doing so; the court will treat such unfounded suggestions with serious concern.