BMJ  2006;332:1229 (27 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7552.1229-a

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Attorney general is to intervene in case of expert witness immunity

BMJ

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

The attorney general, the senior law officer for England and Wales, is to intervene in the General Medical Council's forthcoming appeal against a high court ruling that expert witnesses are immune from disciplinary proceedings over their courtroom evidence.

Lord Goldsmith has asked the Court of Appeal for permission to argue at the hearing, which starts on 10 July, that giving witnesses immunity would be against the public interest.

Mr Justice Collins ruled last February that Roy Meadow, the retired paediatrician who gave misleading statistical evidence at the trial of Sally Clark for the murder of her two baby sons, should never have been brought before the GMC, let alone found guilty of serious professional misconduct and ordered to be struck off the medical register (BMJ 2006;332: 439[Free Full Text]).

The judge held that witness immunity, the rule that witnesses are immune from being sued over their evidence . . . [Full text of this article]

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