Centro

Chris spent three days in the Federal Court in Melbourne in May.

In the recently concluded Centro matter, Chris acted as the expert audit and accounting witness for PwC. The size and complexity of this matter put the process of expert conclaves and hot tubs into an entirely new frame. Five experts, multiple pleadings, and the sometimes surprising informality of the process challenged experts and counsel alike.

 

And yet in Chris’ view the process seemed to work.

 

Once the expert conclave found its modus operandi, it succeeded in providing an effective synthesis of the views of the experts distilling their multi-faceted reports into a usable matrix that highlighted points of similarity and difference.

Whilst the “hot tub” provided counsel with complex procedural issues in handling cross examination, it enabled a concise articulation of the experts’ views on the topics the court saw as material to the case in 3 days - a much more efficient process than traditional serial cross examinations.