Hardly a month goes by now without there appearing a case report featuring the role of the expert witness. The judicial red card is being shown to experts a lot this season, it seems. Perhaps there has been an unofficial direction passed around the judiciary to watch particularly for foul play in this part of proceedings. On the other hand, perhaps it was always the case but the legal press is just talking it up.
For some 20 years I have been involved in the preparation and giving of expert accounting evidence in this country and elsewhere. I have always been struck by the importance that is attached to procedure, especially in the English legal system. Perhaps it is the concept of precedent that causes it. But the propensity to create rules of procedure is awesome. The very size of the Supreme Court ‘White Book’ which, until recently, represented the bible for litigation lawyers, speaks for itself.
