PI Brief Update

Medical Experts for Litigants in Person (LiP) - Dr Mark Burgin

27/11/24. Dr Mark Burgin explains that Litigants in Person need a special type of expert who has expertise in their particular needs and has wide experience.

Litigant in Person (LiP) struggle to find medical experts because they try to copy lawyers. Lawyers will instruct a specialist expert who can only deal with a specific issue. The specialist needs precise instructions and is not prepared to engage after writing the report. When instructed by a lawyer who fully understands the case this is the best choice. For a Litigant in Person this approach will lead to disaster.

Litigants in Person are expected to be both client and lawyer and despite the conflicts between these roles must get things right. Without any training and very little online information they must run their case and get each question right. As lawyers make mistakes this expectation is at best unreasonable and at worst doomed. Litigants in Person have a much higher rate of being struck out or penalties applied than those who are represented.

Many Litigants in Person have disabilities and found obtaining legal representation difficult. I do not criticise lawyers for not wanting to work with those with disabilities as few lawyers have appropriate training. The additional costs associated with disabled clients are not recoverable. Many psychological disabilities are challenging even to an expert in disabilities such as myself.

Generalist expert

The generalist expert has a special skill that specialists cannot compete with. They can see the whole picture and are good with complexity. When a case involves 6000 pages of documents most specialists are unable to help. Generalists do not have problems with voluminous records because they have experience and more time than the specialist.
A specialist may charge £200 per hour so must rush to get the work done within a reasonable timeframe. They cannot take as long as they need because the fee would be excessive. A generalist is able to spend another couple of hours to finish their work without it impacting the overall cost significantly. Also GPs are experts in psychological as well as physical aspects of the case.

Generalists spend their life reading letters from specialists so are familiar with each specialist’s area. The specialist by contrast only reads their limited area so rarely knows much about any other field. Where more than one specialist is instructed by the other side the chance that anybody has a full picture will decrease. Lawyers are therefore limited in these cases as they do not have medical expertise.

Disability

GPs make good experts for Litigants in Person as they have a broad understanding of the issues. They are able to quickly decide whether further evidence should be obtained and where to get it. Their knowledge and ability to deal with complexity mean that they can often help in areas such as hospital medicine.

The problem with the GP medical expert is that they have a blind spot. Disability is still not part of the routine medical training in medical school or primary care. Apart from a few lessons from occupational health or occupational therapy disability analysis is largely ignored in the health service. There are a group of experts who have expertise in this area through working with the DWP.

I wrote a book (Disability Analysis: A practical guide) to help medical experts who have not undergone training. An understanding of disability means that an expert can provide an excellent report for Litigants in Person. Most legal cases involve some question about the effects of injury or illness on the person. Disability analysis provides an answer to this question.

Experienced experts

Litigants in Person can struggle to follow the correct procedures for many reasons. Some will not know what is permitted and be surprised when they learn that the law does not work as they thought. Others have psychological disabilities and are overwhelmed by the complexity of the task. Many will be frustrated by the difficulties that they faced and take it out on the medical expert.

An experienced expert is one who has over 10 years of experience working in medical legal practice. When an expert works in personal injury, family law, criminal law and asylum then they develop a deep understanding of legal procedures. They can see when they have made an error and can put it right but equally can see when they are being instructed to do something wrong.

Experience of case handlers who can push the boundaries means that an experienced expert can manage all parts of their role. They can provide a balanced and detailed report but remain independent of the pressures. They can help support the Litigant in Person by clarifying the boundaries. Experienced experts can see problems before they arise and suggest ways to move the case forward.

Conclusions

There are many experienced generalist experts with disability training who could provide reports for Litigants in Person. Often the approach suggests that they do not have the correct skills for the case. Litigants in Person often try to emulate lawyers instead of just dropping an email to the expert. Ask the expert whether they will work with a Litigant in Person the expert will either say yes or no.

Only when the expert has confirmed that they have the special skills to work with Litigants in Person then send an approach. A good expert will write back with a short response as to the likely key issues, how they would approach it and why they have the right skills. This can help the Litigant in Person choose the correct expert for their case.

Experts will need a face to face or virtual assessment, to review the GP records and any legal documents to produce a fair report. The cost will be modest and the turnaround quick so that the court has something to work with. Many LiP get two or more reports rather than just one. The expert may recommend further assessments but often their report will be enough to settle the claim.

Doctor Mark Burgin, BM BCh (oxon) MRCGP is a Disability Analyst and is on the General Practitioner Specialist Register.

Dr. Burgin can be contacted on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 0845 331 3304 websites drmarkburgin.co.uk and gecko-alligator-babx.squarespace.com

How Litigants in Person find Medical Experts 2018 https://www.pibriefupdate.com/

This is part of a series of articles by Dr. Mark Burgin. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's 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.

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