Medical Experts in the Family Courts

EWI welcomes the final report and recommendations from the Family Division’s working group on Medical Experts in the Family Courts but raises continued concern about how these recommendations will be delivered.

Whilst EWI are pleased to see the recommendations and believe these will go a long way in strengthening the pool of experts who are willing to work in the Family Courts, we are questioning whether the recommendations risk duplication of effort and reinventing the wheel in some areas.

The recommendations place a large emphasis on the Royal Colleges developing guidance for Expert Witnesses and, though it is suggested that they should consider our role, they are not specifically instructed to work with the Institute (or indeed The Academy of Experts) to create the guidance. This seems a missed opportunity and there is the potential for the various Royal Colleges to create guidance where this could be coordinated and hosted by the Institute.

In addition, while the report acknowledges the Directories of Expert Witnesses that are in existence (including the EWI’s) they still conclude that a “Centralised Register of Accredited Court Experts were felt at present to be beyond the capacity of the WG or the FJC to currently progress although it is a subject that that we believe should be further considered by the FJC.”

Chief Executive, Simon Berney-Edwards, said “The report seems to ignore the point that the EWI directory isn’t just a directory, it provides instructing parties with a list of fully vetted experts whose professional credentials have been checked and the quality of their reports have been assessed as being compliant with appropriate regulations and are of excellent quality. It is therefore not inconceivable that the courts could consider recognising our Directory and, if they have additional requirements, discuss these with us to build into our quality assessment processes.”

We welcome the creation of a Family Justice Council Sub-Committee to oversee the implementation of these recommendations, but note that members seem to be limited to those within the working group and does not include anyone from the EWI (or any other Expert Witness body). This, once again, seems to be a missed opportunity.

Access the Final Report https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/the-president-of-the-family-division-working-group-on-medical-experts-in-the-family-courts-final-report/