'Wholly unreasonable and negligent' expert ordered to pay £50k wasted costs

An expert has been ordered to pay £50k in costs following the ruling of the judge that he had acted in a wholly unreasonable and negligent manner as an expert witness.

The judge stated that: 

"I formed the view during trial that Dr. Mercier was not making any efforts to assist the court, but instead wilfully sticking to his case theory irrespective of the questions asked or the evidence given. His evidence was grossly unhelpful and wholly unreliable in my judgement. I will not at this stage detail examples of the same, because it is not relevant to this application. The application before me is predicated on the specific assertion that it should have been obvious to Dr. Mercier at the outset, and at various stages throughout the proceedings, that he was not the appropriate expert to opine on the management, and treatment afforded to the Claimant on 8th November 2016."

Moreover, the judge concluded that they were "entirely satisfied that but for Dr. Mercier’s report this claim would not have been brought. All costs claimed within the Defendant’s cost budget are therefore caused by Dr. Mercier’s flagrant disregard for his duty to the court. A public body has been put to considerable expense in financing costly litigation that should not have been brought. Although it is not part of my considerations I observe that a hard-working oral and maxillofacial surgeon was maligned in public and undoubtedly caused significant distress by the actions of Dr. Mercier."

Simon Berney-Edwards, EWI Chief Executive Officer, said "This case once again highlights the importance of those giving expert evidence understanding their role and their duty to the court. That absolutely includes highlighting where a matter is out of your area of expertise as Dr Mercier should have done. Members of the the Expert Witness Institute sign up to a code of professional conduct and ensure they understand their role and duty to the court. For any instructing party, I would recommend using a directory such as ours where you can guarantee that Experts have been properly vetted"

You can access the full judgment here: R-v-Liverpool-v-Mercier-Judgment.pdf (netdna-ssl.com)