ISSUE 53 Expert Witness Journal - Journal - Page 19
the claimant’s experts, while an acknowledged expert
in relation to part of the claim, was not an expert on
several technical points addressed in her report.
Under cross-examination, she was forced to make uncomfortable concessions, including admitting she had
not understood key concepts and had relied upon “research” to try and understand technical documents.
Unsurprisingly, the court gave no weight to any of her
opinions on matters outside her direct expertise. Her
legal team was forced to abandon elements of her
evidence during the trial.
l have all numbers, including dates, expressed as
figures.
Ideally, page numbering should be at the centre
bottom or in a top corner of the page. Since the Covid19 pandemic, the reliance on paper copies and face-toface meetings have been reduced to the point of
eradication. Reports are invariably incorporated into
large PDF bundles (much like the trial bundle). The
bundle pagination will usually be at the bottom right
of the page.
Format and presentation
Most lawyers will have a view as to what constitutes a
‘good report’, ie one that is clearly presented. However, provided the court rules are met, there is a reasonable degree of freedom regarding the format. This
note is intended to be a cross-check to assist you in
preparing your report and ensure it is well-structured.
It will likely be easier for others to read your report if
it is in a font no smaller than size 11. For ease of reference, if your report cross-refers to any documents,
such as a medical record or another report, it is helpful to refer to the document and its page number (and
paragraph), where possible.
Experts frequently need to quote from medical
records or reports. Embedded screenshots of relevant
medical entries, images, charts, diagrams or notes
(provided they are legible) are acceptable without the
need to re-type individual entries.
2.1. Practice Direction 35
The Practice Directions to Part 35 CPR set out
essential requirements that are worth revisiting:
l to set out the nature of your qualifications
l to give details of any literature or material relied
upon in making the report
l to provide a statement setting out the substance of
all facts and instructions which are material to the
opinions expressed in your report
l to make clear which of the facts stated in the report
are within your own knowledge
When quoting or reproducing clinical records or
other documents within your report, it is essential to
ensure there is a clear differentiation between what is
quoted record, what is mere narrative/summary and
what is your expert comment. Within a large paragraph, you might use brackets, a different typeface or
bold to distinguish your remarks, for example: [Comment: this entry appears to be wrongly dated].
l to set out any examinations or tests undertaken
Content of the report
While no two reports are the same, there are some
points of general application when it comes to the content of your report and assisting the legal team in
preparing the documentation referred to in your
report.
l to set out any range of opinions on the subject
l to give reasons for your opinion
l to contain a summary of the conclusions reached
l to confirm that you have understood and complied
with the court rules, and
3.1. Length of reports – opinion, not a
comprehension exercise
Experts will need to summarise the background of the
care provided before setting out their opinion. In
complex cases, preparing that summary is an art, and
reports can quickly become too lengthy. If too much
information from the clinical records or other expert
evidence is reproduced, it will duplicate other documents the court already has. In Harman v East Kent
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2015], Mr Justice
Turner cited with approval comments from the President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby: “[T]oo
many expert reports… contain too much history and
too much factual narrative… expert reports must be
succinct, focused and analytical. But they must also of
course be evidence based.”
l to provide a Statement of Truth.
The above points are relatively straightforward, but
errors can creep in. For example, the wording of the
Statement of Truth was changed on 1 October 2020.
Three years on, some older templates still carry the
previous wording, rendering the report non-compliant with the rules.
For clarity, we believe the format of expert reports
should closely mirror the requirements of the court
documents the legal team will prepare. Those
requirements are set out in Practice Direction 5A.
2.2. Practice Direction 5A
Practice Direction 5A concerns the preparation of
court documents generally. This part of the court rules
provides that documents should be produced:
He concluded that unnecessary content may be
detrimental insofar as there is a risk that “important
points are lost in the vastness of the context in which
they appear”.
l on A4 paper
l with a 3.5 cm margin
l fully legible and normally be typed
3.2. Material documents
The index of documents available to the expert is
sometimes treated as a mere formality. It is not. This
l with consecutive page numbering
l with numbered paragraphs, and
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