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11 November 2020 / Mark Solon
Issue: 7910 / Categories: Features , Profession , Expert Witness
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Next steps for expert excellence in Scotland

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Mark Solon reports on the first university certified training course for experts giving evidence in Scottish courts

In brief

  • The University of Aberdeen Bond Solon Expert Witness Certificate has launched.
  • It is the first university certified training programme for expert witnesses in the Scottish courts.

Scotland, with its own legal system, needs effective expert evidence as much as the rest of Great Britain. We have just launched the first university certified training programme for expert witnesses giving evidence in the Scottish courts. Until now there has been no systematic training for experts in Scotland and experts were travelling to England and then attempting to translate that training for the Scottish system.

Scottish experts

Experts involved in proceedings in Scotland need to understand the basics of law and legal procedure to work effectively and confidently and comply with various mandatory requirements. They need to understand the practical implications of The Law Society of Scotland Expert Witness Code of Practice (see: bit.ly/2TZjsPT).

The Code is substantially

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NEWS
The Legal Action Group (LAG)—the UK charity dedicated to advancing access to justice—has unveiled its calendar of training courses, seminars and conferences designed to support lawyers, advisers and other legal professionals in tackling key areas of public interest law
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
Operational resilience is no longer optional. Writing in NLJ this week, Emma Radmore and Michael Lewis of Womble Bond Dickinson explain how UK regulators expect firms to identify ‘important business services’ that could cause ‘intolerable levels of harm’ if disrupted
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
Employment law is shifting at the margins. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ this week, Ian Smith of Norwich Law School examines a Court of Appeal ruling confirming that volunteers are not a special legal species and may qualify as ‘workers’
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