Lord Falconer praises expert witness reforms

Citation

(2004), "Lord Falconer praises expert witness reforms", Structural Survey, Vol. 22 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ss.2004.11022aab.006

Lord Falconer praises expert witness reforms

Lord Falconer praises expert witness reforms

Keywords: Expert witnesses, Reforms

Lord Falconer spoke via video link to 400 expert witnesses in November praised the expert witness reforms introduced by Lord Woolf. He commented “The new regime is working well and continues to address the problems identified by Woolf. Expert Witnesses now work effectively so as to ensure that the courts can concentrate efforts on the actual issues in any given dispute. My department's analysis shows that almost half of all trials involving experts used single, jointly instructed experts, delivering consequent reductions in costs and complexity. A survey of solicitors concluded that over 90 per cent were happy with the quality of appointed experts. Further research indicates that control and management of expert evidence has allowed a far less adversarial culture to come to the fore. The judiciary, practitioners and, most importantly, the parties themselves have all benefited from the input of expert witnesses in the regime introduced by my department”. Falconer was addressing the Bond Solon Expert Witness Conference on 28 November 2003.