Is hearsay evidence admissible to support an expert's opinion?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Krishnan v Jamieson Laboratories Inc., 2021 BCSC 1396 (CanLII):
While an expert may rely on second-hand evidence (hearsay) in coming to their own opinion, such hearsay evidence is only admissible to show the information on which the expert opinion is based, not as evidence going to the existence of the facts on which the opinion is based: R v. Lavallee, 1990 CanLII 95 (SCC), [1990] 1 S.C.R. 852, at 893.
In West Moberly First Nations v. British Columbia, 2018 BCSC 730 at paras. 180-185, the court commented on an expert’s adoption of another expert’s report:
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