Expert evidence should be reliability tested, says law reform body

Judges should have to determine in advance whether expert evidence is reliable before it goes before the jury in a criminal trial, the official law reform body for England and Wales has suggested.

The Law Commission says in a consultation paper: “Several recent cases suggest there is an ongoing problem which demands an urgent solution.” It warns that expert evidence is sometimes admitted too readily and argues that despite several successful high profile appeals, a “pressing danger” of wrongful convictions and wrongful acquittals still exists.

The commission was set up to alert government to problematic areas of law and make suggestions for keeping the law up to date, and …