New edition of the Commercial Court Guide issue

The judiciary published the 11th Edition of the Commercial Courts Guide in February 2022.

Whilst there are a number of re-writes which make no material difference, Expert Witnesses need to be aware of two key changes.

The first is the inclusion of a paragraph which highlights that experts should not deliberately hold back matters from discussion at the joint meeting or inclusion within the Joinst Statement opting instead to create a supplemental report:

"H2.25    If the joint memorandum is done well, further (reply) expert reports will often not be required, even if permission has been given for them. It is generally inappropriate for an expert to decline to reveal, or provide a summary for inclusion in the joint memorandum of, their reasons for maintaining some point of disagreement, in order to set it out instead in a further (reply) report. If time does not allow the joint memorandum to do justice to some area of disagreement, for example if further modelling, calculations or research may need to be conducted, that fact, and the nature of any further work to be done by either expert, should be explained in the joint memorandum."

The second is a new section relating to Expert Evidence of Foreign Law.

If you undertake work in this court, we strongly recommend you review the new guidance. You can access this using the link below.