Can a lay witness present their opinions as opinion evidence?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from R. v. Dupuis, 2014 ONSC 2750 (CanLII):
In Paciocco & Stuesser, The Law of Evidence,[19] the authors summarize the general rule excluding opinion evidence from laypersons and its exceptions saying, “In simple terms, we let lay witnesses offer opinions when there is no other meaningful way for them to communicate ordinary knowledge that they possess.” In Graat v. R.,[20] Dickson J. said that lay witnesses could present their observations as opinions where they “are merely giving a compendious statement of facts that are too subtle and too complicated to be narrated separately and distinctly.” Application of the Principles
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