10 March 2023 Wiebke Morgan 2588 News Expert evidence a matter for Trial judge: Application to exclude it at pre-trial stage refused as misconceived byWiebke Morgan In a fatal accident and personal injury damages claim the claimant made a number of criticisms of the Defendant’s expert’s report and applied to exclude it on several grounds: lack of expertise expressing opinions outside areas of expertise failure to maintain impartiality Mr Dexter Dias KC (sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court) found the application to be fundamentally misconceived and dismissed it. He gave each ground in-depth consideration and found that it was a matter for the trial judge to determine – not at pre-trial. The judgement (link below) is worth reading. For example, regarding the allegation of ‘expressing opinions outside their expertise’, the judge states: “I find that this particular objection is classically a matter for the trial judge's judgment and discretion. I conclude, first, that it is not a basis for the exclusion of Mr X's evidence; second, it is not appropriate at this point, as Mr Y submits as his subsidiary position, to excise or to remove a particular passage or passages. That is a matter for the trial judge to assess once the evidence is before her or him.” More links Link to judgement Share Print Tags 06. Rules and Regulations Related articles A fundamentally flawed report Podcast Episode 14: Reflections on the EWI Annual Conference 2025 Online Procedure Rule Committee Consultation: Inclusion framework and pre-action model An expert report that is entirely equivocal on the key issues is of little assistance to the court Expert suggests Google would probably give the court a better answer than him Switch article Too much of a good thing Previous Article Pain Expert Limited approved as an EWI Corporate Partner Next Article Comments are only visible to subscribers.