Jackson reforms survey - 12.03.2014

Related Sector: Expert Witness

On 28 February we asked you the following questions:

• The Jackson reforms to the Civil Procedure Rules were introduced in April 2013. Their aim was to streamline civil litigation, increase access to justice, cut costs, speed up the process and focus on key issues at the outset of any matter. What is your experience of the Jackson reforms so far? 
• Minds were concentrated by Mitchell v News Group Newspapers Ltd last November, when the Court of Appeal restricted the solicitors’ costs budget of more than £500,000 to court fees of £2000 because the firm was late filing its budget. In other cases, “disproportionate and unreasonable” budgets were not approved. This was as a direct result of the Jackson reforms. Have you had any experience of the courts being tough under the new regime? 
• Have you had any experience of hot-tubbing? If so, what was it like?

View the full survey results

Thank you to all of the civil experts who gave us their thoughts. The survey results have really helped us to understand the positive and, largely, negative impact of the reforms on experts. We hope that your experiences and strategies will also help other expert witnesses.

We will be looking into some of the issues that you raised in the run-up to our Annual Expert Witness Conference in November.

Although only a few experts asked to remain anonymous, we decided to put the expert's name next to their comments only when they were part of a wider group.