Case Updates

A claimant who sustained a moderately severe brain injury when she fell off a pier was found by the judge to have been been fundamentally dishonest.

Simon and Sean discuss the importance of Expert Witness training in the context of Gareth Jenkins' evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry and some recent judgments. 

The medico-legal expert in this personal injury claim was urged by the judge to seek further training after he made all of the three most common compliance errors which the EWI sees in expert reports.

Hamed v. Ministry of Justice (County Court in Cambridge – 7th June 2024)

An expert must read and engage with any judgments which form part of their instructions. 

An expert report did not address all of the questions posed in the letter of instruction, reformulated other questions, and failed to comply with FPR Part 25 in a number of important ways, while the expert witness's oral evidence failed to provide an impartial expert view. 

The cout found that a financial expert's report was inadmissible as evidence because he was not properly independent or objective, while very little weight could be attributed to the report of an employment expert because he lacked expertise in the area in which he purported to give expert evidence. 

Our annual conference is always a highlight in the Expert Witness Institute calendar. This year’s event, which took place on 17^th May, saw The Rt. Hon. Sir Keith Lindblom deliver a captivating opening keynote.

The qualifications and experience of an expert in an extradition appeal did not demonstrate that he was an expert on the issues before the court. 

The judge found that an expert witness's anlaysis became incoherent because he failed from the outset to take into adequate account the NICE recommendations. 

The judge made it clear to the parties that the expert evidence must be condensed and translated into a form which is manageable and proportionate to the court's enquiry. 

L v O [2024] EWFC 6