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Login to watch this video if you have a subscription. Learn more about subscriptions.Everything You Need to Know About Experts is an in-depth panel discussion exploring the law, procedure, and strategy surrounding expert evidence in civil litigation. The panel offers a practical, candid look at how experts influence the outcome of trials, emphasizing that expert testimony can determine whether a case succeeds or fails. Judges and experienced litigators share insight on selecting, retaining, and instructing experts, meeting the requirements of R. v. Mohan and White Burgess Langille Inman, and complying with Rule 53.03 of the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure.
The conversation addresses the realities of expert bias, financial arrangements, the use of participant versus litigation experts, and the expanding role of technology and AI in expert analysis. The speakers discuss admissibility challenges, late reports, multiple signatories, the problem of “hired guns,” and how courts are applying stricter gatekeeping standards to ensure independence and necessity.
Through case examples and audience polls, the session highlights how to manage expert costs, test reliability through cross-examination, and maintain ethical boundaries when assisting in report preparation. The discussion closes with best practices for budgeting, using visual aids effectively, and presenting persuasive, compliant expert evidence that withstands judicial scrutiny
Christy is one of the founding partners of Davidson Houle Allen LLP. She provides a full range of corporate and litigation services to condominium directors, managers, owners, and insurers. She also represents co-tenancy associations, and gives advice with respect to co-tenancies’ governing documents. Christy’s work includes building deficiency actions, proceedings involving difficult owners and tenants, collection and lien proceedings, including power of sale, as well as matters involving the enforcement of property rights. She also has experience with construction law. She has appeared on behalf of her clients before the Superior Court of Justice (including the Small Claims Court), the Ontario Court of Appeal, and various administrative tribunals.
Jenna Anne de Jong’s litigation practice includes both commercial and regulatory disputes. She advises clients on procurement and contract disputes in the defence, aerospace, and shipbuilding sectors, and also acts for clients on related regulatory issues arising out of doing business with government, including lobbying compliance and access to information. She regularly appears before the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. She has also acted for clients in domestic and international arbitrations concerning disputes involving PSPC overhead and profit audits, project management, charterparty disputes, and ship sale and purchase agreements.
Jennifer Arrigo is a freelance litigation counsel and the founder of Arrigo Legal Services. Before launching her practice, she worked with local boutique firms, a national firm, a full-service firm and a national insurance company, gaining broad experience across the civil litigation spectrum. As Senior Legal Counsel, Jennifer has led complex personal injury, property, construction, commercial and insurance litigation matters. In her role as a Deputy Judge of the Small Claims Court, she has presided over numerous settlement conferences, motions and trials. When not assisting Ontario litigators with their work, Jennifer can often be found rehearsing with the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra.
Steve’s practice focuses on professional liability, insurance and commercial litigation. He has extensive experience in advising both insurers and insureds about coverage issues and has had a number of reported cases in that field. He has also acted as a mediator and as an arbitrator in various types of civil disputes, principally in the areas of insurance and commercial law. As well, he has acted as counsel in disciplinary proceedings. Steve is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, He is certified by the Law Society as a Specialist in Civil Litigation. He has been selected for inclusion among The Best Lawyers in Canada in Insurance Law and Malpractice Law has been “Repeatedly Recommended” as a Leading Practitioner in the field of “Litigation-Commercial Insurance” by LEXPERT. In 2014, 2017 and 2019, Best Lawyers in Canada named Steve the Lawyer of the Year in the area of Insurance Law in Ottawa. Since 2007, Steve has been a member of the Ontario Civil Rules Committee, which is responsible for the Rules of Civil Procedure. In 2013 and again in 2018, he was a member of a subcommittee which made recommendations to the Civil Rules Committee regarding the discount rate for future pecuniary damages (Rule 53.09). Those recommendations have since been enacted. He also served as a member of another subcommittee that considered the issue of whether medical examinations in a litigation context should be recorded. For five years, Steve was the Ottawa Senior Instructor in Civil Litigation for the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Bar Admission Course. He also taught Insurance Law and Trial Advocacy at uOttawa’s law school for several years. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1980.
Tom Ozere is a partner at BLG. He is a civil litigator representing major insurance companies, financial institutions and individuals. His practice focuses on insurance law, professional liability, disability law, personal injury, commercial litigation, and mediation/ADR. He’s conducted numerous jury and non-jury trials in the Superior Court of Ontario and appears frequently in the Court of Appeal. Tom sits as a Deputy Judge. He was formerly the lead singer for the Verdict, the CCLA’s house band.
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