Medical & Other Experts in Personal Injury Claims
Posted on 5th March 2020
Every personal injury claim that proceeds to Court, and the vast majority that don’t, will have an expert witness, usually in the form of a medical expert. There are many types of expert witness, generally these are individuals, qualified in a certain field, who provide independent expert evidence in a case. Experts are, of course, not limited to personal injury cases and many civil and criminal cases also use expert witnesses.
The importance of choosing the correct expert as your witness is not to be underestimated. You must choose the correct expert, who is qualified in the field which you require the opinion and they must be capable of providing their opinion impartially and fully, without leaving any gaps in their reasoning.
A handwriting expert was once discredited by a Judge who provided six samples of handwriting, asking for the expert’s opinion on whether they were written by the same person at the same time. The expert stated they were not, however, the Judge had written them himself that very morning.
A more macabre example was when the infamous Dr Crippen was tried, his solicitor attempted to obtain favourable evidence from two doctors to discredit a well-respected pathologist, by stating that he had wrongly identified a thigh as a stomach. The experts, having been promised they would not be called to Trial to confirm their evidence, were indeed called to give evidence in person and they were embarrassed by the ridiculous nature of their earlier written evidence.
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The above two examples are, of course, more outlandish cases where experts were either in the wrong field or genuinely saying what their paying party was asking them to say. It is, in many civil cases, more usual that experts will, as human beings are prone to do, disagree on certain points. However, they will - generally speaking - agree on some sort of common ground and thus allow the parties and the Court to either settle or decide a claim respectively.
MG Legal, your local solicitor Garstang, regularly deals with experts and we routinely select experts directly, without the aid of an agency, to ensure that the party instructed does indeed have the right qualifications for the case they are asked to comment on. We have built up a network of reliable, properly qualified witnesses in all fields that are usual and any less usual experts are, always, researched and questioned as to their credentials.
It is, in any event, the duty of an expert to advise if they are qualified or not, however, as with any private contractor, some will try to stretch the boundaries of what they can comment on. This is why MG Legal, your local solicitor Garstang, ensures that each expert has been thoroughly checked and their field of expertise confirmed prior to instructing them.
MG Legal, your local solicitor Garstang, has the legal expertise to help win your case, however, as the legal process needs guidance on those matters outside legal expertise, whether medical, engineering or occupational health, we insist that the expert’s commitment to the case is equal to our own. Whilst we cannot sway them, their evidence being independent, we do insist that they review the case in full and all relevant evidence to ensure that their picture reflects the whole case.
Should you have sustained a personal injury, or have any other type of legal matter, please contact MG Legal, your local solicitor Garstang, to discuss how we can help you. We aim to accept all personal injury matters on a Conditional Fee Agreement (no win, no fee agreement) and all other matters on a fixed fee basis wherever possible. Please get in touch with us at our offices in Garstang, Lancaster or Longridge and we will put you in touch with the correct department immediately to ensure you receive the advice and representation you deserve.
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