PI Brief Update

European Group for Legal Expertise - Barry Turner, University of Lincoln

06/01/14. On the 9th July 2014 a project was undertaken by members of the European Judiciary, Lawyers, Expert Witnesses and Legal Academics to reach a European consensus on the best practices in civil judicial expertise and to draft a European Guide to good practice.

The increase in cross border litigation in all areas of law but especially in personal injury, intellectual property and expert supported case management necessitates a common approach to litigation that for many years was made difficult because of different traditions and legal systems. The European Expertise and Expert Institute, a Paris based legal think tank have drawn on expertise from all member states of the EU and via a series of plenary debates and working groups are assembling a model for the use of expert witness evidence across all member states of the EU.

The Institute has made excellent progress to date and its working groups are in the final part of the process with regard to the use of experts in the civil law. In spite of early trepidation about the differences between the common law system in the UK and the civil law system in most of Europe reaching agreement on practice has been much easier than first expected.

This is in large part due to the influence of the Civil Procedure Rules acting very much as a bridge between UK legal traditions and those of our EU partners. The Civil Law element of the process is expected to conclude with a report going to the European Commission in late summer 2015. The next project will focus on the use of experts in the criminal law and we all look forward to the challenges that will bring.

The working groups of the EGLE Project consider four main areas where harmonisation of practice is desirable:

1.    Appointing an expert : mission and expectations

2.    Expert proceedings and the expert’s report,

3.    Qualifications, Competence, and the evaluation of experts,

4.    The status and ethics of experts : free exercise and liability.  

As chair of working group three, on qualifications competence and accreditation I am delighted with our progress to date and confident that our work on harmonizing the use of expert witnesses across the EU will be of great benefit to clients and practitioners alike.

The Institute’s commitment to promoting the quality of judicial expertise within the European Union has been recognized by a decision of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) in admitting the EEEI as observer within the workgroup on the quality of the justice.

IEEE are still welcoming new participants to this project. If you are interested in contributing to this project,you can contact the author at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or m.elalaoui@experts-institute or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Barry Turner
Univeristy of Lincoln

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