Expert Evidence: An Overview of English Legal System and Judiciary

This report examines the role of expert evidence within the English legal system and its judiciary. It begins with an introduction to expert evidence, defining its significance in providing substantive clarification in legal cases. The report then describes the English legal system, highlighting its structure and the division of laws into civil and criminal categories, and also explains the judiciary's hierarchy. The core of the report focuses on criminal cases, specifically R v Smith and Fisher v Bell, illustrating how expert evidence, such as the heroin in Smith's case and the flick knife in Bell's case, played a crucial role in the outcomes. The analysis includes relevant sections from the Theft Act 1968 and the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959. The conclusion summarizes the importance of expert evidence in justifying cases. The references include books and journals that support the report's analysis.

Expert Evidence

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Expert evidence is that kind of evidence which is been used regarding the case that has
been presented in order to attain more substantive clarification in relation over facts which is
related to case. In this presentation evaluation upon English legal system and judiciary process
has been done as per given topic.
TASK
Describe English legal system and judiciary in relation to expert evidence
According to(Sheehy, 2018)English legal system is that framework which is been used
in order to makes sure that peace and order is maintained within society. Under this system
various kinds of laws covered dealing upon different crimes existing in United Kingdom. This
system has two major kind of laws that is Civil law and Criminal law. Judiciary in UK is
divided into Supreme Court which is highest court of appeal, then comes High court in which
Queens bench deal with criminal cases and chancellor division deal with civil cases. The comes
lower courts known as court of first instance. As they deal with cases when they are freshly
presented. Expert evidence plays important role in justifying the case of criminal nature and
provide appropriate assistance over facts in relation to case.
Criminal cases in context of expert evidence
R v Smith
According to (Chorn and Kovera, 2019) facts of the case says that Smith arranged
meeting with Chesterfield Jordan in order to purchase heroin from him. As Jordan come to
meeting point Plummer and Haines come and attacked Jordan. Plummer put knife on his throat
and Haines punched him as he was on ground they kicked him and demanded for heroin.
As per(Carr and et. al., 2018) Court of appeal dismissed the petition on the ground that
drugs did not constituted property for purpose of theft as the possession was unlawful. Important
section marked in this case is section 4 of Theft Act 1968 says that property as including all
tangible property, whilst some exceptions are set out in the Act such as real property and wild
animals, the exceptions do not extend to property in unlawful possession.
In this case expert evidence was heroin which is an illegal drug and has been banned by
government of United kingdom. So, this formed major cause of dismissal of appeal.
Fisher v Bell

According to(Andretta and et. al., 2019) in this case defendant has a flick knife displayed
within Shop window over pricing tag on it. It is an criminal offence to display such knife for
sale. Court quashed as the selling of goods in shop and literal was applied with section 1 of
Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959. In this section person manufacturing or sells of
such knife is illegal. Two major points is covered which is knife that opens automatically and
knife which has blade importation of any such knife is considered illegal under this section.
Expert evidence in this case is flick knife and its selling is banned under the Restriction
of Offensive Weapons Act 1959. This made case to be more justified with proper evidence.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it can be concluded that expert evidence is that evidence
which helps in making justification done within a particular case. Further two cases has been
explained in relation to criminal law and expert evidence.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Andretta, J.R and et. al., 2019. Applying statistics to the gatekeeping of expert evidence:
Introducing the Structured Statistical Judgement (SSJ). Behavioral sciences & the law.
37(2). pp.133-144.
Carr, S and et. al., 2018. Clarifying the ‘reliability’continuum and testing its limits: biometric
(fingerprint and DNA) expert evidence. In Forensic Science Evidence and Expert
Witness Testimony. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Chorn, J.A. and Kovera, M.B., 2019. Variations in reliability and validity do not influence judge,
attorney, and mock juror decisions about psychological expert evidence. Law and
human behavior. 43(6). p.542.
Sheehy, E., 2018. Expert evidence on coercive control in support of self-defence: The trial of
Teresa Craig. Criminology & Criminal Justice. 18(1). pp.100-114.