Joint expert—no fee

A jointly instructed sole expert’s fees are to be paid equally by each of the parties under a court order. Where neither party pays anything, does the court have the power to impose a sanction at the request of the expert or must the expert sue in contract?

The court could properly impose an appropriate stay until the expert’s fee had been paid in the exercise of its case management powers. However, this might raise difficulties as there could be some dispute between the parties or one of them and the expert as to, for example,  the amount of the expert’s charges or the standard of the expert’s service. It would be unfortunate if the court became involved in satellite litigation between the parties and the expert. The better course would be for the expert to make his independent claim in contract against the parties who instructed him and to seek an interim injunction forbidding the