BMJ  2005;330:1026 (30 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7498.1026-a

Letter

Negligence of medical experts

Expert witnesses should adhere to Civil Procedure Rules 1998 and be impartial

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Bishop's personal view on the negligence of medical experts should not pass unchallenged.¹

Lord Woolf made it clear in the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, which came into effect in 1999, that all expert witnesses, medical or otherwise, have an absolute obligation to follow them. Part 35 sets out that the expert has an overriding duty to help the court, not to support the party who has engaged the expert. This means strict impartiality and requires various undertakings from the expert.

• The facts used in the expert's report must be true
  
• The expert's opinions must be reasonable and based on current experience of the problem in question. When there is a range of reasonable opinion, the expert is obliged to consider the extent of that range in the report and to acknowledge any matters that might adversely affect the validity of the opinion provided
  
• The expert is obliged to . . . [Full text of this article]

The Manchester Clinic, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester M13 9WL raymundcarroll@f2s.com

Pewley Hill, Guildford GU1 3SW

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