David Cowan, Leam Craig. and Kathryn Newns have been recognised for their contribution to the Expert Witness community.  

In this article, Rose Wilson and Mariya Rankin from Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP, and Bhavina Vasishta from Rimkus consider whether the role of expert witnesses in building safety disputes requires an urgent rethink following Grenfell and the sweeping reforms of the Building Safety Act 2022.

The EWI held the annual Scottish Medicolegal Conference at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow on 18 September. The event featured great speakers and panels and lots of interaction with the audience of expert witnesses and legal professionals.

In the sixth article in the Working with expert witnesses series, Alexandra Winch a Partner at Stewarts, discusses her experience of joint expert meetings. 

This research has provided the first-ever assessment of the size and characteristics of the Expert Witness workforce in the UK.

We have revised our recently published Guidance for experts on acting for litigants in person. After engagement with members, we have decided to amend our advice on whether to act for litigants in person to balance more appropriately the importance of facilitating access to justice while retaining appropriate safeguards for experts. 

The RICS has recently published the 5th edition of its Surveyors acting as expert witnesses professional standard (‘standard’). We participated in the RICS consultation on the draft standard, and we are pleased to note that most of the issues we raised have been addressed in the final published standard and practice guidance. However, we continue to have concerns that the standard and the practice guidance may have the potential to mislead experts into not fully complying with the applicable rules and regulations. 

The Equal Representation for Expert Witnesses (ERE) Pledge has transferred from its founding host organisation (AlixPartners) to the custodianship of the Expert Witness Institute and has been subsumed into EWI activities. This will ensure that EWI are in a position to take payments, employ staff, and provide the support for the ERE Pledge and the ERE Executive Committee.

In the fifth article in the Working with expert witnesses series, Richard Lodge a Partner at Stewarts, discusses his experience of working with Single Joint Experts. 

This year’s Annual Conference discussed AI, independence, credibility, transparency and the changing expectations on expert witnesses.