Richard Harrison provides a checklist for the witness who is an expert but not a courtroom regular
The majority of experts know what they are doing. They are used to writing reports and giving evidence. Their expertise is of a nature regularly required in civil litigation and they can be instructed on the basis of past experience. Their reports will be, quite legitimately, based on off-the-shelf templates. They will have a good working knowledge of CPR Part 35, the relevant Practice Direction and the Guidance for the Instruction of Experts which replaced the previous “protocol” in December 2014.
Rare topics
Sometimes, however, an individual is required to provide an opinion on a topic on which they have a wealth of knowledge and experience but which rarely troubles the courts. They will be an expert in their field but not in the field of giving evidence to the court. They are an “inexpert expert”.
Yet they are still bound by the rather complex, repetitive and diffuse rules referred to above and their instructing solicitors must get them up to speed, sometimes quite quickly.
