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23 March 2012 / Mark Solon
Issue: 7506 / Categories: Features , Expert Witness
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Reality check

Mark Solon provides a reminder of the expert’s duty of truth to the court

At the beginning of this month, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed that it is examining the case of seven expert witnesses, who allegedly repeatedly misled the court as to the value of prestige replacement hire cars.

Where a driver is not at fault for an accident, they may be entitled under their insurance to claim an equivalent car while their own is being repaired, and the witnesses were employed by now defunct Autofocus to assess and report on the true value of those cars to insurance companies.

It is alleged that the quotes provided by Autofocus were often much lower than their competitors, and those quotes were often used by insurance companies in court to back claims that competitor credit hire companies were overcharging them.

Dishonest statements

Two years ago the chief executive of credit hire rival Accident Exchange, Steve Evans, successfully brought a claim against Autofocus researcher Helen Whysall, who admitted dishonest statements in four cases and

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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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