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PI Brief Update

Legal Mind Case and Commentary No.3: Preparing Expert Evidence: Reasonableness and Logicality - Dr Hugh Koch and Dr Caroline Formby

25/05/16. Lawyers and experts alike need to ensure expert evidence fully meets the request of CPR. Issues of reasonableness and logicality are discussed below.

Case: “Preparing Expert Evidence”’

Geoffrey Simpson-Scott (Colemans-ctts) (2015) stated that “in Mulholland v Medway NHS Foundation Trust [2015] EWHC 268 (QB), Green J helpfully reiterated a series of principles for the proper assessment of expert evidence on breach of duty at trial. These principles are not new; as he set them out previously in C v North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust [2014] EWHC 61 (QB). As he now set these out twice, it is sensible for practitioners to take heed and apply them during the preparation of their cases, notwithstanding the downward pressures on costs both sides of the profession face”.

The principles of preparing and/or obtaining expert evidence are found at para. 25 of C and para. 81 of Mullholland. They are based on Green J’s review of the previous case law (probably including Stuart-Smith J’s judgement in Loveday v Renton [1990] 1 Med LR 182). These principles are...

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All information on this site was believed to be correct by the relevant authors at the time of writing. All content is for information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No liability is accepted by either the publisher or the author(s) for any errors or omissions (whether negligent or not) that it may contain. 

The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.