Dr Chris Pamplin analyses the results of a major survey of the expert witness marketplace
As the largest multidisciplinary expert witness community in the UK, the experienced individuals listed in the UK Register of Expert Witnesses represent an unrivalled source of information on matters of importance to experts and those who instruct them. Since 1995, the Register has regularly conducted surveys of its expert witnesses. The following analysis is based on the latest survey conducted over the summer.
The experts
Of the 408 experts who responded by the end of August 2015, 198 were medical practitioners. Of the remaining 210 experts, 51 were engineers, 51 were in professions ancillary to medicine, 27 were accountants or bankers, 30 had scientific, veterinary or agricultural qualifications, 20 were surveyors or valuers and 23 were architects or building experts. The small “others” category totalled nine experts.
Work status & workload
Of the respondents, 43% undertake expert witness work full-time, with 42% part-time. Only 15% describe themselves as retired. Between 2003 and 2013 this split was fairly stable, with the full-time figure at around 50%. It appears, then, that in 2015
