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Should you challenge an expert's view without calling them to court?
Wiebke Morgan 2699

Should you challenge an expert's view without calling them to court?

byWiebke Morgan

In a tribunal concerend with determining damages, the claimant relied on several medical reports and reports from one employment expert which showed that, by reason of the respondent’s conduct, the claimant was unlikely to work again. The judge rejected the defendant’s challenges to the expert’s conclusions, because the defendant had chosen not to call the expert.

 

“It is noteworthy that none of these individuals were called as witnesses to the tribunal and their expert opinions were not subject to cross-examination. There is no reason, as far as the tribunal is aware, why they could not have been called. Instead, the respondent has sought to undermine the findings in those expert reports in its cross-examination of the claimant, which lasted over a day. “

 

The respondent’s strategy of not calling expert evidence of its own, and not requiring the claimant’s experts to attend the hearing is discussed in more detail in the judgement - link below.

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