Expert business

Industry experts sometimes make poor expert witnesses because of their unfamiliarity with their role and duty to the court, James Stanbury, partner at RGL Forensics, writes in this week’s NLJ. He focuses on four key stages for an expert: selection; instruction; reports; and meetings. Instructions should be timely and clear, early instructions can reduce costs and allow matters of strategic importance to be highlighted earlier in the process. Discussions between experts are an essential part of the process, and too much solicitor involvement in these may hinder rather than help the process as well as risk compromising the experts’ independence.