EWI Advocacy Update
One of the key roles of the Expert Witness Institute (‘EWI’) is to ensure that policy, rule and regulatory changes are informed by the experience of our members, and the needs of the expert witness community and the wider justice system. In this update, we discuss policy developments and our advocacy work over the last few months. You can listen to the 'Newsreel' segment of our Expert Matters Podcast for a regular monthly summary.
Civil Procedure Rule Committee
Access to public domain documents trial
The Civil Procedure Rule Committee (‘CPRC’) has approved in principle a 2-year pilot on “access to public domain documents” in the Commercial Court, London Circuit Court and the Financial List effective from 1 October 2025. The pilot will be implemented by a new pilot PD. Further details should be available in July, with the CPRC indicating that this was tempered and more gradual approach than its earlier proposals.
Questions to CPRC Open Meeting
We submitted questions to the CPCR open meeting in May on the breakdown of expert and agency fees and its ‘access to court documents’ workstreams.
Civil Justice Council
Lord Justice Birrs’ Keynote speech
Lord Justice Birrs made a keynote speech at the EWI Annual Conference on ‘Expert Witnesses – Vital Participants in Civil Justice’.
Review of ‘Guidance for the instruction of experts in civil claims’
Lord Justice Birrs indicated that the Civil Justice Council (‘CJC’) was intending to review its ‘Guidance for the instruction of experts in civil claims’ with a view to considering whether the guidance was still useful and whether it should be updated. He noted that the CJC would be interested in hearing about any issues which they should consider as part of that review, including any broader policy issues they should consider.
We have requested views from members and will provide a response to the CJC.
Expert Witness Standards
Lord Justice Birrs noted that the CJC was open to views on how they could promote professional standards for experts, including considering further forms of expert accreditation.
We will provide a response to the CJC setting out how the standards for experts could be improved through training and regulation.
Intermediate Track, 20 page limit
Lord Justice Birrs also noted that the 20 page limit for reports allocated to the Intermediate Track could be considered during the FRC Stocktake in October.
We will engage fully with the FRC Stocktake, including on the issue of the 20-page limit.
AI guidance for expert witnesses
Lord Justice Birrs highlighted the revised judicial guidance on AI and noted that similar guidance might be needed for experts.
We will encourage the judiciary to consider guidance for experts on the use of AI. In the meantime, we are also developing our own guidance. You can hear our initial thoughts on the key dos and donts in our podcast: Podcast Episode 11: AI and the Expert Witness
Artificial Intelligence
The CJC has established a Working Group to consider if rules are needed on “the use of AI by legal representatives for the preparation of court documents, including pleadings, witness statements, and expert reports”.
Family Procedure Rule Committee
We submitted a largely supportive response to the Family Procedure Rule Committee's consultation on new FPR 25.5A concerning the instruction of unregulated experts, with the aim of requiring any expert instructed in family law children proceedings to be regulated. We suggested some amendments to improve the proposal and set out the benefits of also regulating the standards for experts as expert witnesses, and not just in their professional field.
Family Justice Council
We are attending the Family Justice Council open meeting on 7 July and have asked a question on the Council’s views regarding the regulation of expert witnesses.
Criminal Procedure Rule Committee
The Criminal Procedure Rule Committee asked us to review proposed changes to CrimPD 7.2.1 which would remove the current implication that failure to comply with a relevant code will be fatal to the reliability of the expert evidence to which the Code applies.
Online Procedure Rule Committee
The Online Procedure Rule Committee’s (‘OPRC’) Statutory Instrument came into force on 30 April 2025. The OPRC intends initially to publish consultations on:
(1) Pre-action (on 11 July), and
(2) Possession and property.
Transparency and Open Justice Board Stakeholder Committee
The Transparency and Open Justice Board has indicated that it will publish its Key Objectives at the end of July. We provided a response to the Board’s consultation on its Key Objectives earlier this year.
We will attend the Board’s next Stakeholder Committee meeting on 22 July.
Forensic Science Regulator
The Forensic Science Regulator (‘FSR’) has published version 2 of its Code of Practice which will come into force on 1 October. We engaged late last year with the FSR on its guidance for experts which it is intending to revise.
Ministry of Justice
Breakdown of agency and expert fees
The CPRC noted that the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO) are discussing with interested parties the possibility of a cross-industry agreement on the breakdown of expert and agency fees. The MoJ has no set policy view on this issue but would not be opposed (subject to details) to an industry agreed solution.
We have written to the MoJ seeking further details about these discussions.
Call for evidence: Use of evidence generated by software in criminal proceedings
We provided a response in April to the MoJ’s call for evidence on the use of evidence generated by software in criminal proceedings. The call for evidence is to help the Ministry better understand how the current presumption concerning the admissibility of computer evidence is working in practice, and whether it is fit for purpose in the modern world.
Scottish Justice Council
The Scottish Justice Council (‘SJC’) had indicated in their next steps for the Ordinary Procedure Rules that the SJC would consult again on the next version of the draft rules in late 2024. We have written to the SJC seeking an update on the timing for this consultation.
Housing Condition Strategy Group
The EWI has continued its role as vice chair of the Housing Condition Strategy Group which aims to improve the quality of expert evidence on housing condition and disrepair.
Getting in touch
We would welcome hearing the views of members on any of the issues discussed in this update at policy@ewi.org.uk.