Expert Matters - The Podcast

The claimant alleged that the second defendant, a Spanish racing driver, had repudiated a binding agreement under which he was contracted to drive for the claimants’ IndyCar team for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 racing seasons. The judge found some of the expert witnesses to be impressive and independent, while the expert evidence of others was unimpressive and disappointing.  

This case illustrates the factors taken into account in Scotland in deciding whether to grant an application for certification of an expert which is necessary if the charges of a skilled person are to be recovered from other parties by way of judicial expenses.

Grant v Lothian Buses LTD [2025] CSOH 98

The case was a group litigation concerning extensive oil pollution which affected two regions in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. The judge rejected the strident criticism of the experts who were called to provide evidence on aspects of Nigerian law.

It appears that in this case an expert recommended the appointment of an intermediary without understanding the role of an intermediary. The court did accommodate proper breaks and ensured clear explanations as to the charges faced.

R v Sartip-Zadeh [2025] EWCA Crim 1250

The Forensic Science Regulator has published new Guidance on Forensic Science Activities: Interpretation and Communication. The Guidance applies to all practitioners and sets out principles and expectations for interpretation and communications of observations from forensic science activities. 

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 key policy developments and our advocacy work over the last couple of months. 

The judge found that the report by the claimants’ forensic accounting expert was not expert evidence because it simply reported what the underlying documents said in a more digestible way, without adding any expert opinion. On the one or two occasions where the expert did offer an opinion, they were not opinions on any accountancy matter.

EWI Chief Executive Officer, Simon Berney-Edwards, shares his thoughts on 2025, a year where Expert Witnesses have continued to come under increasing scrutiny.

The task for the expert in this case was enormous. Capacity is issue specific. This means that if the issue is someone’s capacity to conduct legal proceedings, in this case sixteen sets of proceedings, the expert has to consider each set of proceedings. The person may have the capacity to conduct some and not others.

Johnston v Financial Ombudsman Service [2025] EWCA Civ 551

Join us for the last podcast of 2025! With some festive cheer, we review 2025, with the ten key issues for expert witnesses that we've seen over the course of the year. We also check out how our predictions for 2025 turned out, before having another go for 2026 and hearing the 2025 highlights from some of the members of our Editorial Committee.