Expert Witness Survey

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Adding to a two decade surveying programme

You will find below the expert witness questionnaire for 2019. I do hope that you will be able to find a quiet 10 minutes in which to complete the questionnaire so that the statistics we publish are as representative as possible. Last time around, one quarter of experts listed in the Register responded – with your help we should be able to beat that figure this year!

1) About you

We will treat all information you provide on this questionnaire in the strictest confidence and nothing we publish will allow your individual responses to be identified. You may submit this information anonymously if you wish, but if you are willing to identify yourself please enter your name or 5-digit J S Publications U-reference if you have one.

 
1.1
Please tell us which of these general sectors you belong to and your specific area of expertise.
1.2
1.3
1.4
Do you work within a ‘group’ of expert witnesses?
1.5

2) About your expert witness work

2.1
Do you work full-time, part-time or are you retired?
2.2
%
2.3
2.4
Do you see your expert witness work as an expanding part of your workload?
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
In comparison with 2 years ago, would you say your number of instructions has:
2.10
How many times, in the last 2 years, have you been threatened with proceedings arising from your expert witness work?
2.11
How many of these have resulted in actual actions?

Work Categories

2.12
What proportion of your work falls into each of these categories?
%
% (non-family cases)
%

Legal Aid

2.13
%
2.14
2.15

Litigants in Person

2.16
Are you willing to accept instructions from Litigants in Person (i.e. people running their own legal cases without the help of a lawyer)?
2.17
%
2.18
When working for Litigants in Person, do you insist on receiving payment on account (i.e. they pay you before you do the work)?

3) About your terms of engagement

3.1
Prior to accepting instructions, do you stipulate your terms and conditions for so doing?
3.2
When accepting instructions, do you use a standard written form of contract?
3.3
Do your terms or contract state your fees and expenses are to be paid within a fixed period of you submitting your invoice?
3.4
Are more solicitors asking you to accept deferred payment of your fees than was the case 2 years ago?

4) About your fees

4.1
£
4.2

4.3
£
4.4
What is your annual income bracket from expert witness work?




4.5
firms
4.6
What per cent of your fee do you charge if notified of a court cancellation within:
%
%
%
%

5) About payment of fees

5.1
%
5.2
weeks
5.3
times
5.4
invoices, where disputed.
5.5
5.6
5.7
In comparison with 2 years ago, would you say your invoices are being settled:



6) Jackson Reforms

6.1
Have you been involved in the concurrent giving of evidence (so-called ‘hot tubbing’)?
6.2
If so, do you think it helped the court to better understand your evidence?
6.3
Have you been asked to provide a costs budget for a case?
6.4

Submitting your responses

Send your responses to us by passing this simple test and then clicking the submit button.