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27 June 2014
Issue: 7612 / Categories: Case law , Law digest , In Court
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Expert evidence

Rowley v Dunlop and others [2014] EWHC 1995 (Ch), [2014] All ER (D) 159 (Jun)

The essential character of expert evidence was that it should be the independent product of the expert uninfluenced by the pressures of litigation and that it should be objective and unbiased evidence on matters within the expert’s evidence (CPR PD 35, paras 2.1 and 2.2). The qualities of independence and lack of bias might be compromised by the expert’s connections with the litigation or the parties or those who might benefit from the litigation. It was always a matter for the court to decide whether any such connections disqualified the expert from giving evidence or whether, as might often be the case, they went, not to the admissibility of the evidence, but to the weight to be attached to it. Such connections might take a number of forms, of which three were the most obvious. First, the expert might have a financial interest in the outcome of the litigation. Only rarely would the court admit the evidence of such an expert. Second,

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

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Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths strengthens London Construction and Engineering practice with two strategic senior hires

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins announces strategic hire to deepen skills base in the social business sector

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Britain’s new acknowledgement that Israel’s occupation is unlawful, and accompanying settlement-goods ban and sanctions, is significant but overdue, argue Danny Friedman KC and Victor Kattan in NLJ this week
New planning fee rises, wider trade union access rights and a service-by-email trap feature in Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way
Existing defamation law can respond to AI ‘hallucinations’, but allocating responsibility will prove harder where outputs reach users without human intervention
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