Login Join Us

Case updates

Case Updates

These case updates are provided by Professor Keith J.B. Rix, BMedBiol (Hons), MPhil, LLM, MD, FRCPsych, Hon FFFLM

Professor Keith Rix is a founding member of the Expert Witness Institute and became a Fellow in 2002. He is a member of the EWI’s Membership Committee. He is Visiting Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, School of Medicine, University of Chester, Honorary Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Mental Health and Intellectual Disability Lead, Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians.  He has provided expert evidence for over 35 years, including on a pro bono basis in capital cases in the Caribbean and Africa. He is the author of Expert Psychiatric Evidence and a co-editor, with Laurence Mynors-Wallis and Ciaran Craven SC, of the second edition, Rix’s Expert Psychiatric Evidence, which is being published by Cambridge University Press in September 2020. He is also the lead author of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Report CR193 Responsibilities of psychiatrist who provide expert opinion to courts and tribunals.   

Case Updates

EWI welcomes government action on unregulated expert witnesses
Sean Mosby
/ Categories: Industry News

EWI welcomes government action on unregulated expert witnesses

The EWI has long held concerns about expert witnesses without appropriate qualifications and experience, and subject to the relevant regulatory oversight, providing written and oral evidence in court processes.

 

In a debate on 23 April in the House of Lords on the Victims and Prisoners Bill, Lord Bellamy, a Minister of Justice, noted the need for “an across-the-board solution, worked out through the Family Procedure Rule Committee, to implement changes that would ensure that, where a psychologist undertakes any psychological assessment in private law children proceedings, they are suitably regulated and that that broader work encapsulates any other problems that arise in relation to unregulated experts.” We welcome Lord Bellamy’s statement and look forward to the Family Procedure Rule Committee’s work on this important area. 

 

His Lordship had earlier noted that “[t]his problem probably extends to healthcare generally.” We think that this problem extends to a great many areas of expert witness work. All expert witnesses should have the qualifications and experience to be experts in their field and be subject to the relevant regulatory oversight.

 

All members of the Expert Witness Institute have been vetted to ensure they have the appropriate professional qualifications, experience, and regulatory oversight, as well as proven proficiency in the core competencies of an expert witness.

Print
194
Comments are only visible to subscribers.