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The LSC Consultation
The UK Register of Expert Witnesses final response
You can read the of our final submission to the Commission or read the full submission in
.
On Friday 26 November 2004, the Legal Services Commission launched its long-awaited consultation on expert witnesses within the
context of publicly funded (a.k.a. Legally Aided) cases. In brief, it proposes to:
- achieve a situation in which most experts are accredited by the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners (CRFP)
- introduce fee scales in the civil arena linked to those already set for criminal cases – this will roughly halve the fee
levels of expert witnesses in the civil arena
- remove the system of assured payment through prior authority
- force LSC-specific contractual conditions into the contracts between lawyers and experts – one effect of which will be to force
experts to accept any reduction of fees made on assessment of costs.
Understanding the issues
The Consultation Paper is 54 pages long and covers three broad areas: quality, price and procedures. We have prepared a number of resources to help you get to grips with the Consultation Paper, and to enable you to respond.
To understand what the Consultation Paper is about, you can:
To respond, you can:
The consultation is now closed.
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