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26 April 2012 / Dr Chris Pamplin
Issue: 7511 / Categories: Features , Expert Witness , Profession
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Dr Chris Pamplin takes a hard look at the expert witness-specific recommendations from the Family Justice Review

The Family Justice Review Panel report (published in November 2011) contains several recommendations that are of particular significance for both expert witnesses practising in the family courts and those who instruct them. Announcing publication of the report, the Panel said that its recommendations were aimed at tackling “shocking delays in the system” and generally improving the family justice system.

Usefulness of expert evidence

The 155-page report devotes a little over nine pages to matters relating directly to expert witnesses. The section commences with a somewhat ambiguous statement as to the usefulness of expert evidence in child cases in the family courts. Acknowledging that expert evidence is “often necessary to a fair and complete process”, there has been a trend towards what the Review Panel believes is “unjustified use of expert witness reports, with consequent delay for children”.

It will be apparent, therefore, that this section of the report begins with a rebuttable presumption that there

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