Courts rely heavily on Expert Witness evidence and opinion. To do so they must be able to accept that an Expert Witness is truly an Expert. With oral evidence being given less and less the only way that the court is able to ascertain the appropriateness of an Expert is through his or her Curriculum Vitae (CV).
Up until now the contents of Experts' CV's have been varied and sometimes more of a marketing device than something appropriate or useful to the court.
To aid the courts The Academy of Experts' Judicial Committee (itself comprised of senior judicial figures including Lord Justice Jackson the author of the Jackson Reforms) has produced a Model CV format for Expert Witnesses.
At its annual lunch and legal update seminar held at the RAF Club on Friday 30th January TAE President, Lord Saville of Newdigate, formally launched the Model Form of Expert Witness CV.
The Judicial Committee, which Lord Saville himself chaired, prepared the Model CV in response to an increasing number of concerns raised by senior judges about the quality and content of CV's in the reports they were seeing. CV's are often too long and do not contain information that would assist the courts.
The committee have stated that the hallmarks of a good CV are brevity, clarity and most importantly ensuring the information provided is relevant to the case. The CV must demonstrate the Expert's qualification and experience for the case. The Model CV will sit alongside the Model Form of Expert's Report which is already in widespread use.
Lord Saville said:
"In developing the Model Form of Expert Witness CV the Judicial Committee wanted to provide a template. This would ensure that experts, irrespective of their discipline, set out their qualifications and experience relevant to matters on which they are expressing their opinion in a clear and simple format.
In the same way that the model report format has been widely adopted around the world we believe that the Model CV could be a new international standard adopted and used by all Experts."
Echoing Lord Saville's comments at the lunch, Academy Chairman Dr Chris McArdle thanked the Judicial Committee for its hard work in support of TAE. He announced TAE's intention to introduce further guidance over the coming twelve months to help further improve the standard of Expert Evidence.