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Expert reports and their appendices should not be indigestible to the court
Sean Mosby 1278

Expert reports and their appendices should not be indigestible to the court

bySean Mosby

The Case

Due to a supervening and unforeseen change in his financial position, L was seeking to vary, discharge and/or set aside a number of financial remedy final orders which he and his former wife had previously made by consent.

 

The judge was considering an application from the ex-husband for a stay and applications from the ex-wife for a Hadkinson Order and security for costs.

 

Case Management

In considering case management, the judge noted that:

 

“The expert reports are all supported by extremely lengthy appendices containing highly technical documents (there is an account of one exhibit simply being unexplained spreadsheets of figures: ‘Comparative World Overview Tables’). One exhibit runs to over twenty-two lever arch files. The size (and indeed, from counsel’s descriptions, the content) of these appendices will be indigestible to the court in [a five day] hearing. I have made clear to the parties that the information on which the experts wish to rely will need to be condensed and translated into a form and size which is manageable and proportionate for the enquiry on which I will be engaged.”

 

The judge also directed a discussion between experts in the same disciplines to draw up a schedule of agreement and disagreement. Questions to the experts from the parties would be considered at the pre-trial review hearing.

 

Learning points

  • In preparing their report, expert witnesses should bear in mind that the judge (or members of the jury) are not experts in that field and will have a limited amount of time to digest the expert evidence.
  • The information set out in the report (and appendices) should be labelled and described with sufficient clarity for a non-expert reader to understand its nature and purpose.

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