I recently attended the funeral of a man you have probably never heard of, but who was of enormous importance to all you litigators, whether civil & commercial, family, criminal or ADR. After several years as a boring old chartered accountant – annual accounts, audits, tax returns, business plans, I was asked to act as an expert in several cases, including one concerning a stuntman on a Superman film who was injured at Elstree Studios, which required me to spend a week at the RCJ and a day in the witness box.  I was hooked.  Then I was asked to act in an international fraud case ..read more

On 29 November the Court of Appeal gave its judgment in the long-anticipated case of Churchill -v- Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 1416.  It started life as a simple dispute between an individual and a council over Japanese knotweed but assumed such importance that there were no fewer than seven bodies admitted as interveners: the Law Society, the Bar Council, CMC, CEDR, CIArb and two housing association bodies. So what was the case really about, and does it change the way civil and commercial mediation disputes are to be handled in future? The basic case This was ev ..read more

You kind readers of this journal, or of the blog page on my website, will have noticed that I go on and on (and on and on…) about incompetent or even dishonest expert witnesses.  It is over 12 years now since the expert’s immunity from suit was removed – see Jones -v- Kaney [2011] UKSC 13 – and since then we have had: a third-party costs order against an expert – see Martine Robinson -v- Liverpool University Hospital NHS Trust in Liverpool County Court at reference F95Y511 though that was quashed on appeal and  a medical expert threatened with jail in Liverpool Victoria Insuran ..read more

Those of who (thank you!) who have had the patience and loyalty to read some of my past articles will be aware that I am quite scathing about the performance of some expert witnesses. In some cases it’s merely incompetence, but with others it’s more serious. Looking at the incompetents first, we have such inept examples as in Van Oord Ltd & Anr -v- Allseas UK Ltd [2015] EWHC 3074 (TCC), where the expert failed in his duty by: not even considering or formulating the costs as incurred by the claimant (and he was the costs expert!); admitting in cross-examination that he did not even ag ..read more

I want to talk today about a particularly difficult problem which mediators are asked to address, namely disputes over family inheritance. The reason they are so difficult is that it’s seldom about the money, or at least about money alone. Underlying many of these disputes are long-held resentments, questions of self-worth, fairness, and questions of the degree of love felt by the deceased. And so often the deceased’s love for their siblings can only be measured – in the perception of their offspring – by the size of their legacies. Let us take a hypothetical case The deceased widow was modera ..read more

What follows should be familiar to all solicitors engaged in contentious work, but it does no harm to remind ourselves of the basics. How can I, a humble chartered accountant, feel able to propound on such matters? Because I have practised for over 30 years as an expert witness; also for many years as a mediator and expert determiner. I have written many hundreds of expert and valuation reports, given expert evidence over 100 times, and conducted 120+ mediations and 45 expert determinations. I served for 14 years on the ICAEW forensic committee, and then for 6 on the ethics committee. I am a f ..read more

You may have read lots of articles and blogs from me about inadequate or incompetent experts, and having an expert who doesn’t know his job doesn’t help your case.  There are often costs consequences, a strident example being Patricia Andrews & Ors -v- Kronospan Ltd [2022] EWHC 479 which I discuss at length in my blog.  There, you may remember, an expert had charged £225,000 (an enormous sum, far higher than I have ever charged!) but was over two years late in delivering a Joint Statement of Experts.  Then, when enquiries were made, it was revealed that the expert had been i ..read more

You may have read lots of articles and blogs from me about inadequate or incompetent experts, and having an expert who doesn’t know his job doesn’t help your case.  There are often costs consequences, a strident example being Patricia Andrews & Ors -v- Kronospan Ltd [2022] EWHC 479 which I discuss at length in my blog.  There, you may remember, an expert had charged £225,000 (an enormous sum, far higher than I have ever charged!) but was over two years late in delivering a Joint Statement of Experts.  Then, when enquiries were made, it was revealed that the expert had been i ..read more

I’ve been reading again the case of Siegel -v- Pummell [2015] EWHC 195 (QB). The facts are simple.  Mr Siegel was injured in a motor accident, and Mr Pummell (think about it!) admitted liability.  There was a trial on quantum and Mr Siegel succeeded in securing a reasonable amount, but he claimed his costs on the indemnity basis for these reasons: The defendant’s expert neuropsychiatrist had made personal and combative attacks on the claimant’s expert psychologist; The defendant’s expert had not cooperated in the joint statement process and The defendant’s expert gave his written ev ..read more

“It is ordered that the experts of like experience shall liaise, and shall produce a joint statement, setting out those matters on which they are agreed, and those matters on which they have failed to reach agreement, and their reasons for not so agreeing.” This is fairly standard wording in civil cases. In criminal cases the experts are also ordered to set out the reasons for which they have reached agreement, too, which is interesting; but let’s stay with civil cases. So the experts have to get together and produce a joint statement, and that will form part of their report, so that the ..read more