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Expert witnesses: Out for hire?

11 November 2022 / Dr Chris Pamplin
Issue: 8002 / Categories: Features , Profession , Expert Witness
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The independence of experts—can any more warnings be needed, asks Chris Pamplin
  • Covers caselaw illustrating disastrous examples where solicitors have ignored the independence of experts.

It is always frustrating when expert witness independence has to be called into question. Just when you think you’ve seen the worst transgression, another two come along.

Surely everyone knows that experts must not act as ‘hired guns’? Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) Part 35 makes clear that an expert’s first duty is to the court, and this overrides any obligation to those who instruct or pay the expert.

Where the court directs discussions to take place between experts, neither the parties nor their legal representatives may attend, unless this has been ordered by the court or agreed by all parties and the experts. In the course of discussions, experts must give their own opinions to assist the court, and do not require the authority of the parties to sign a joint statement. The report must reflect the expert’s own opinion, and it should

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NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority 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
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