Surgeons should have legal training before acting as expert witnesses, says guidance

Medical expert witnesses should receive appropriate medicolegal training before they appear in court, new guidance from the Royal College of Surgeons of England advises.1

The guidance describes the roles surgeons should have when acting as an expert witness in civil, criminal, and coroners’ cases. It follows two recent independent reviews of medical manslaughter published in response to the Hadiza Bawa-Garba case that highlighted the need to improve the quality and consistency of expert witnesses in gross negligence manslaughter cases.2 …