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Your Witness
... the expert’s forum for discussion and information
dissemination
Published quarterly and distributed free to all
registered expert witnesses, Your Witness acts as a forum
for the discussion and dissemination of information relevant to
practising expert witnesses.
Coverage ranges from highly topical issues (such as legal reform
and court reports) to more ‘background’ business matters
(including getting paid, fees, disbursements
and much more).
The following table shows the contents of the last four issues.
To gauge the quality of Your Witness firsthand, you can
read and
on-line.
| Issue 91,
March 2018 |
- GDPR brief
- When litigation involves sensitive commercial information, trade secrets or valuable scientific research, it poses particular problems with expert confidentiality
- Dressing up fact as opinion can backfire
- Are experts distinct from ‘the team’ when cost orders are involved?
- There is a heavy burden on a party looking to change expert late in the day which, save in exceptional circumstances, will be difficult to discharge
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| Issue 90,
December 2017 |
The recently introduced Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims appears to set up a Prevaricator’s Charter that makes securing overdue payment potentially more long winded. What can you do to minimise its impact on your cashflow? We also consider the coming into force in May 2018 of the new General Data Protection Regulation. While most experts are only minor data processors, many deal with very sensitive data so they will not be immune. How do you need to proceed? We end with the somewhat odd notion of the anonymous expert witness. What are the circumstances under which ‘the secret expert’ can exist? Also inside, we regret the Beeching-like dismantling of the legal aid system, one of the key reasons that debt claims now need their own Protocol, and we consider how best to deal with criticism in earlier proceedings of an expert’s work. Often very unfair, is there anything an expert can do to minimise the impact on credibility? |
| Issue 89,
September 2017 |
In this issue we take a look at whether the report of an expert who is no longer able to act for a party has to be disclosed as a necessary condition of the party being able to appoint a new expert. It has become increasingly viewed as a requirement to be imposed by the court, but is that true? We also publish the results of our latest expert witness survey. If you are keen to know how others view the expert witness scene, including summary statistics on charging rates, this is the article for you. We ask can evidence an expert has studied in one case be reused if the expert is subsequently instructed in another action flowing from the same incident? What if the new instructing solicitor does not even know of existence of the evidence? We unpick the distinction between expert evidence that is opinion and that which is factual. The distinction may, at first glance, appear to be fairly academic, but there are some quite important consequences that flow from these different elements of the expert’s evidence. If forced to sue for your fee, we urge you to be careful who you sue - if you get the name wrong you could be on a sticky wicket. And finally we offer some words of caution to experts who undertake pro bono work for lawyers. Such commendable social justice instincts can backfire! |
| Issue 88,
June 2017 |
Brexit remains a hot topic as Article 50 is finally triggered and the UK wheels like a slow dreadnought at the Battle of Jutland to face what is fast becoming the Grand Fleet of a belligerent European antagonist. While that manoeuvring takes place, we use the opportunity to look at what will be involved in disentangling the Gordian Knot that is EU law in the UK. Confidentiality relating to proceedings held in open court is seldom contentious because all documentation and judgments will generally be in the public domain. The same is not true of arbitration. With an increasing number of experts acting in such cases, it is worth reviewing the current position regarding confidentiality rights and obligations in arbitration. An over-eager judge stars in our case report from the Court of Appeal. The judge got so involved that he began to answer the questions that had been put to the expert by counsel in cross-examination! The question asked is: Did this have an impact on the safety of his final judgement? The justice system is keen to get us all in the hot-tub together - whether we want to or not! Our article looks at the benefits of hot-tubbing and what is holding things up. And finally, we ponder the proper response should you end up being approached by both sides in a case. |
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is an informative and stimulating publication in keeping with the
generally very high standard of the UK Register of Expert Witnesses.’
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publication of Your Witness, which I find informative and very readable.’
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