Lord PhillipsAs I look back over the past 40 years, the expert witness has too often been the Achilles heel of the criminal and civil justice system. This is a matter on which Lord Justice Auld has had a lot to say in his review of the criminal courts.

The first problem is deciding whether or not a witness has sufficient expertise to qualify as an expert witness; a witness who is entitled to give evidence of opinion as opposed to evidence of fact.