Case Updates

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JXX v Scott Archibald [2025] EWHC 69 (SCCO)
Case Updates

JXX v Scott Archibald [2025] EWHC 69 (SCCO)

In considering whether the claimant should be required to provide a breakdown of expert and medical agency fees, the judge decided to offer the claimant the option of either providing the breakdown of expert and medical reporting organisation fees, to enable an assessment of work of both the expert and the MRO, or not providing that information and having the expert fees assessed on the hypothetical basis that there was no medical reporting organisation involved.

Consent – post-Montgomery
Case Updates

Consent – post-Montgomery

Although this is a dental/maxillofacial negligence case, it is of importance for all healthcare experts instructed in cases where consent may be an issue. It highlights points about which experts should enquire when there may be an issue as to consent to a surgical or other procedure. In this case it was found that the consent process was deficient in a number of respects. It is also a case which illustrates how expert evidence can separately assist the court on the issues of breach of duty, causation, condition and prognosis.

Winterbotham v Shahrak (Rev1) [2024] EWHC 2633 (KB) 

Justice for people with a hearing impairment
Case Updates

Justice for people with a hearing impairment

A psychiatrist whose evidence had often been admitted in capacity cases was assisted in this case of a hearing-impaired person by an interpreter who had British Sign Language (BSL) Level 1 training. Her assessment was subsequently criticised as she conducted the assessment without ‘suitable specialist learning support’.

For psychiatrists and psychologists, the case illustrates the importance, in the case of some hearing-impaired subjects, of being assisted, or of the assessment being carried out, by a psychologist or psychiatrist who has experience of the assessment and treatment of hearing-disabled people.

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council v KZ (Rev1) [2024] EWCOP 72 (T3) 

When expert evidence falls well below the standard of a competent expert witness
Case Updates

When expert evidence falls well below the standard of a competent expert witness

The judge found that the evidence of the claimants' psychological expert fell well below the standard to be expected of a competent expert witness, both as to form and as to substance.

Rashpal Samrai & Ors v Rajinder Kalia [2024] EWHC 3143 (KB)

An unsafe conviction with flawed DNA evidence
Case Updates

An unsafe conviction with flawed DNA evidence

In this Bermudan case, the appellant successfully appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to have his convictions quashed because of errors in the collection, examination and interpretation of the DNA expert evidence used in the trial.

Julian Washington (Appellant) v The King (Respondent) (Bermuda) [2024] UKPC 34

Non-freezing cold injury
Case Updates

Non-freezing cold injury

This was one case brought to trial in the multi-claimant non-freezing cold injury (NFCI) litigation. The case illustrates the challenges for experts when the clinical condition in issue is rarely encountered (or at least rarely recognised) in normal NHS practice. The detail of this judgment may be of interest only to neurologists and vascular surgeons but makes useful reading for any expert instructed in a case where non-freezing cold injury is in issue. 

Fraser v Ministry of Defence [2024] EWHC 2977 (KB)

Expert appoints herself as social worker, psychologist, therapist and judge
Case Updates

Expert appoints herself as social worker, psychologist, therapist and judge

At a time when psychologists in particular are concerned about psychological evidence being given by psychologists who are unregulated, this case illustrates the risks when an ‘independent’ social worker gives psychological evidence.

The learning points are of general application. The specifics of the case are for psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers.

Coventry City Council v XX [2024] EWFC 249 (B) 

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