header-logo header-logo

Civil Way: 16 October 2020

15 October 2020 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 7906 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way
printer mail-detail
Ditching SJE principles; Fast tribunal listing in employment; Oral exam docs not for show; What the Judge ordered

EXPERT ABANDONMENT

Having given permission to appeal in the noise induced hearing loss claim of Hinson v Hare Realizations Ltd [2020] EWHC 2386 (QB), Martin Spencer J disappointed the claimant by throwing the appeal out. The single joint engineering expert had been against the claimant. Three days before the fast track trial which had been twice adjourned, the claimant applied for a further adjournment and permission to rely on his unilaterally instructed expert who would have been for him and for consequential case management directions including a retracking. There was good reason for the lateness but the application was dismissed, as then was the claim on its merits.

What should be the approach to an application to abandon a single joint expert and adduce unilaterally instructed expert evidence? The correct approach, decided the appeal judge, was that set out by Eady J in Bulic v Harwoods [2012] EWHC 3657 who had referred

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
back-to-top-scroll