Dr Chris Pamplin considers the impact of an open justice pilot on expert witnesses & their work
- Covers public access to expert witness reports, including a pilot scheme in the commercial courts that followed the Supreme Court decision in Dring.
- Looks at a journalist’s request for access to expert reports by a clinical psychologist in a case, Jessica Bradley, after reporting on their work on parental alienation.
A two-year pilot scheme in the English commercial courts began on 1 January 2026. It gives the public automatic access to certain documents used in public civil hearings, including expert reports, reflecting the open justice principle and objectives of the Transparency & Open Justice Board. The scheme builds on the Supreme Court’s decision in Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd v Dring [2019] UKSC 38, but remains controversial.
Wider public access to expert reports has many ramifications, with one of the main concerns being the often-unwanted publicity that publication of an expert report might bring to its author. This would be particularly so for those experts engaged
