Send a Brief

Animal Expert Witness Service Brief and Letter of Instruction

The brief should contain a letter of instruction.

The letter of instruction is an important document for us so we can give you an accurate estimate of fees

1. It should  detail what questions the solicitor wants answered by the expert. Questions should be numbered
2. It should  also outline what assumptions the expert is to make.
3. We prefer the letter of instruction to be provided electronically  as a microsoft word document , so that we can copy and paste your questions into our report . Some law firms send the  letter of instruction as an adobe pdf as well

Often your brief will be a letter of instruction  and additional electronic  attachments

1.  It is helpful to us if the attachments are named so that the name indicates  what the file is about. This is better for us than files being named with numbers and letters only. e.g. if your client is Fred Jones and they have drawn you a diagram that explains where people were located in a matter relating to an accident in cattle yards , we would appreciate it if you could  name the file jonesdiagramcattleyards2.15pm.pdf not xyz45765.pdf
2. If the brief , including attachments is  more than 30 mb in size , we suggest putting the documents, photos, videos and diagrams into a cloud storage facility and send us a link.  We use  dropbox for storing information sent to us and organising folders and files . Our experts can also then access this cloud facility e.g. dropbox . iCloud drive, googledrive etc are all fine
3. Photos, videos and diagrams help to explain what happened.Ideally you will provide us with photos  that reflect the scene at the time of the incident rather than 2 or 5 years later when things may have been changed .
4. The expert may need to visit the site where the incident occurred or examine the animal. This adds to expense , so we try to avoid if possible. Sometimes however, to compile a good  report, a site visit will be highly desirable

In most cases the law firm asks our expert to get involved in creating an accurate history of what happened . It is inevitable that the brief will not provide all of the information that the expert requires in coming to an understanding of what happened. After the brief has been received electronically and read in detail by the expert, the expert will contact the solicitor or the solicitor's client or both, to fill in the missing pieces to the "jigsaw puzzle" of what happened

Please include a copy of the relevant expert witness code of conduct and instruct the expert to acknowledge it. We get cases from all Australian states.