A leading barrister has called for a study to examine whether anecdotal evidence of abuse and misconduct by expert witnesses is on the “industrial scale” alleged by some, as funding arrangements increase the risk of malpractice.
Tim Dutton QC, a professional discipline specialist at London’s Fountain Court, who took part in a Panorama documentary exposing misconduct by expert witnesses, said in his experience “charlatan forms of behaviour” by expert witnesses is rare.
But he told the Bond Solon expert witness conference in London that anecdotal evidence from circuit judges, who routinely deal with volume low-level personal injury cases, criticised the “industrial scale” on which “so-called expert evidence” was given by doctors for claimants where there was no evidence of injury, particularly in whiplash cases.
This article was first published in Litigation Futures (www.litigationfutures.com) on 10 November 2014 and is reproduced by kind permission.