The pressure is on expert witnesses to swat up on hot tubbing, says Mark Solon
While the term hot tubbing is familiar to a small bubble of expert witnesses, in fact if you ask the average litigator what it entails many will still be at a loss to answer.
There are good reasons to know. Hot tubbing, or concurrent expert evidence, appears likely to take off after Lord Justice Jackson recommended that it be piloted in the UK courts in his 2010 report into civil litigation costs.
Last year saw the conclusion of a successful pilot in the Manchester Technology Court and Mercantile Court led by His Honour Judge Waksman QC. The report into the pilot concluded that hot tubbing increased the efficiency of the process and the ease with which evidence can be given and differences of views examined and assessed.
It found that procedure encourages representatives, experts and the judge to focus on the issues prior to the trial and to clearly identify areas of disagreement. Time at the trial is saved, the report found, and the job of the judge
