Did you know that your Expert Witness CV should differ from, your professional CV?

A professional CV aims to summarise all of your professional qualifications and achievements and display your strengths as a candidate for a role. An expert witness CV summarises your professional qualifications and experience in order to demonstrate your appropriateness for that specific case, both to your instructing party and the Court. It is a fundamental step in demonstrating your expertise.

 

Top tips for your Expert Witness CV

An export report must give details of the expert’s qualifications. For example, in civil proceedings, this is set out at CPR Practice Direction to Part 35, 3.2(1).

The Guidance for instructing experts also notes that:

“The details of experts’ qualifications in reports should be commensurate with the nature and complexity of the case. It may be sufficient to state any academic and professional qualifications. However, where highly specialised expertise is called for, experts should include the detail of particular training and/or experience that qualifies them to provide that specialised evidence.” (paragraph 54)

It is important for expert CVs to be kept up to date, be completely honest about the expert’s current professional practices, and avoid vagueness, as the details could be challenged. For example, an expert claimed in their CV that they “still do regular clinics” when the clinics were actually supervising trainees. You might want to consider using your website as a type of online CV, but remember that, while the various versions of your CV are likely to be different, they must all be consistent.

So, what are five tips to keep in mind when writing your CV?

1. An expert CV is not the same as a professional CV. In writing your expert CV focus on clarity and relevance. Remember that you need to demonstrate who you are and what you’ve done to someone who doesn’t know you and isn’t an expert in your field.
2. Instructing lawyers will be assessing your credibility. Your CV needs to show that you are an expert in your field, respected, able to speak authoritatively and, if you are able to demonstrate it, pushing yourself into a leadership role in your field. It’s important also to set out your training, expertise and experience as an expert witness.
3. Never stretch the material in your CV to keep yourself looking relevant, as an inappropriately vague CV will raise suspicions that the expert is out of touch.
4. Make sure you tailor the CV you include with your report to the specifics of the case.
5. Check out our supporting materials to make sure you provide a good quality Expert Witnss CV which will support the court!

 

Advice and support

If you would like more advice and support....

• Try the new EWI CV Writing Toolkit in the Knowledge Hub
• Check out Expert Matters Podcast Episode 16 on CV Writing
• Book onto the EWI’s CV Writing webinar on 1 October.