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Dr Bashir Qureshi. Expert Witness in Cultural, Religious & Ethnic issues in Litigation and also in GP Clinical Negligence, London.

Expert Witness Blog

The value of the informed expert

The value of the informed expert

By arboricultural consultant and accredited expert witness Mark Chester of Cedarwood Tree Care.

The role of the expert witness in advising on claims is a key element. Having an informed guide to give counsel on the merits of a case can ensure that wise decisions are taken either to pursue or defend a claim. What may surprise is that arboriculture, my own specialism, is unregulated. During my two decades as an Arboricultural Consultant, I have encountered evidence, sometimes quite limited being given undue merit, as those instructing are unaware of the limitations of the ‘expert’.

When I am instructed to review a case, a starting point is to explore existing evidence and its merit. I have found...

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Expert Witness News

Expert Witness Legal News

How can the Paralegal Sector help law firms get back on their feet, post Covid-19? By Amanda Hamilton, NALP

How can the Paralegal Sector help law firms get back on their feet, post Covid-19? By Amanda Hamilton, NALP

As we all know, Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown has affected our lives in many ways and forced many law firms into hardship.

Some practices are in a catch 22, wondering whether or not to invest in remote working facilities when their financial situation is so vulnerable. I’m aware of one commercial business owner that has 300 employees and a massive weekly payroll. She has to make just that decision: should she financially invest in supplying internet, computers and phones for them to work at home when there is little/no income coming in? Furthermore, there is the knowledge that this situation will not last indefinitely.

When the lockdown is fully lifted, and it will lift eventually, law ...

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Expert Witness : Building and Property

Downsizing or expanding? Make sure your lease terms are clear

Downsizing or expanding? Make sure your lease terms are clear

Karen Mason is a highly experienced commercial property lawyer and co-founder of Newmanor Law, a specialist real estate law firm. Here she outlines the importance of Heads of Terms in negotiating new commercial leases.

As businesses return to workplaces once again, many occupiers will be looking to either renegotiate lease terms or agree new leases to redefine their situation, given a growing acceptance that remote working will form part of the working week.

The question of space utilisation may lead some businesses to downsize, whilst others looking to space their people apart may ironically need bigger offices, or more locations.

Different requirements will mean new agreements, requiring Head...

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Expert Witness : Criminal

More psychologists are in court – and that’s a good thing!

More psychologists are in court – and that’s a good thing!

Vulnerable offenders with mental health, alcohol and substance abuse problems are increasingly being diverted from short-term custodial sentences and towards treatment that aims to tackle the causes of their offending.

In the pilot areas – Birmingham, Plymouth, Sefton, Milton Keynes and Northampton – psychologists are working collaboratively with the existing panels of justice and health officials. Together, the professionals ensure that magistrates and judges have the information they need to determine whether an offender should be required to receive treatment for their mental health, alcohol or drug issues.

They help to ensure that Community Sentence Treatment Requirements (CTSRs) are issue...

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Expert Witness : Medico Legal

Latest MoJ report short on detail, expert complains

Latest MoJ report short on detail, expert complains

In September the Ministry of Justice published the results of a consultation on medical reporting within the package of whiplash and small claims track reforms – due to be implemented in April next year for road traffic cases. The consultation ran for a month in April-May, and the resultant document sets out the government’s policy choices.

It is, however – as seems par for the course in this area – very light on detail. That is the conclusion of Alistair Kinley, director of policy and government affairs at law firm BLM.

“Given that the thrust of the proposals is much as was outlined in the consultation in the spring, it’s regrettable that the MoJ announcement of the measures has come in early...

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Expert Witness : Technology

Government to plug mobile phone loophole

Government to plug mobile phone loophole

The government has confirmed it will close a legal loophole which has allowed drivers to escape prosecution for hand-held mobile phone use while behind the wheel.

At present, the law prevents drivers from using a hand-held mobile phone to call or text.

However, people caught filming or taking photos while driving have escaped punishment as lawyers have successfully argued that the activity does not fit into the ‘interactive communication’ currently outlawed by the legislation.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced that he will urgently take forward a review to tighten up the existing law. The revised legislation will mean any driver caught texting, taking photos, browsing the internet ...

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Expert Witness : Environment

The fundamental right to be protected from the dangers of air pollution

The fundamental right to be protected from the dangers of air pollution

The British Safety Council welcomed the news of the High Court quashing the verdict of the 2014 inquest into the death of nine-year old Ella Kissi-Debrah, who suffered a fatal asthma attack. Her mother Rosamund has since campaigned for a fresh inquest, believing Ella’s death was caused by high levels of air pollution near her home in southeast London. It means that Ella could become the first person in the UK to have air pollution mentioned as a contributory factor on her death certificate.

Lawrence Waterman, Chairman of the British Safety Council, commented: “The ruling of the High Court is proof that since 2014 we have become much better informed about the dangers of air pollution. Air poll...

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Expert Witness : Animal & Farming

Dr WHO? by Dr Debbie Marsden

Dr WHO? by Dr Debbie Marsden

Dr Debbie Marsden, a leading equestrian expert with over 20 years professional experience of expert witness work, offers some advice on selecting the right expert in cases involving animals

In animal related cases, a veterinary surgeon is often the best expert, being generally regarded as an authority on animals and easily recognized by the word 'veterinary' – a protected title – and the letters MRCVS (Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) after various degrees.

As with all professions, when seeking an expert it is best to use a specialist; and vets are not allowed to describe themselves as a 'specialist' until they have taken considerable further study and been further examined ...

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Parliament, Legislation And Public Sector

Home Office GDPR exemption risks new Windrush, says Law Society

Home Office GDPR exemption risks new Windrush, says Law Society

The Law Society of England and Wales has criticised the decision to exempt the Home Office from data access rules in the new Data Protection Act, which implements the widely-publicised GDPR. The move will inevitably lead to miscarriages of justice, the society has warned.

Law Society president Joe Egan said the immigration exemption in the legislation stripped accountability from Home Office decision making.

“Since legal aid was removed for most immigration cases in 2012, it has become increasingly difficult to challenge immigration decisions – decisions which evidence shows are often incorrect,” he said. “Subject access requests are the final recourse for people trying to deal with a complex,...

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Expert Witness: Events

Expert witness conference is hailed a success

Expert witness conference is hailed a success

On 8 November Bond Solon held the 25th Bond Solon Expert Witness Conference at Church House in Westminster. Demand for the conference had been particularly high, leading to a fully-booked event. Nearly 500 expert witnesses were in attendance and there were over 50 expert witnesses on the waiting list.

That upsurge in demand for places was in part due to the expert witness guidance issued in May by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. The guidance stated that healthcare expert witnesses must undertake formal expert witness training and keep that training up to date with appropriate refresher courses and activities.

Demand was also driven by a number of high-profile cases involving expert witn...

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 Your Expert Witness Issue 68


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Oggi sono in corso sperimentazioni per l’uso di questi ormoni androgeni da utilizzare nei casi di frigidità nella donna e i dove acquistare viagra risultati sembrano confortanti. Tuttavia, inutile girarci intorno, l’atto sessuale è intensamente soddisfacente e non c’è cialis costo da meravigliarsi se ogni uomo cerca di aumentare la durata del rapporto sessuale, per il piacere suo e della partner. Ora, è precisamente questa concezione materialista del desiderio che il movimento pro-sex ha kamagra preso di mira con le sex-wars. Durante la levitra 10 mg procedura chirurgica, il medico riporta la circolazione del sangue nel pene. Il piacere del desiderio è sottile, è una aspettativa.

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How we can bridge the generation gap

JOE HOY, of Focus Forensic Telecommunications Ltd, explains the new challenges for the analyst of 3G mobile phone systems.

The second generation (2G) GSM mobile phone system was released on an unsuspecting world in the early 1990s – unsuspecting in the sense that no-one understood the profound changes to personal communications that were about to happen.

At the end of the 1980s mobile phones were the preserve of the few ‘yuppies’ who could afford them. By the end of the next decade over one billion people around the world were enjoying the ability to communicate from wherever they happened to be (even if they were on holiday abroad) and were rapidly beginning to forget what life was like before mobile phones came along.

The vast majority of mobile subscribers are content to use their phone for calls and text messages – services that GSM excels at supporting. More adventurous subscribers make use of GPRS services to browse the internet and send picture messages. However, GPRS only allows users to connect to the internet at about the same speed as an old dial up modem and, as the personal communications market began to mature, the time appeared to be ripe for an evolution.

The magic number?
Third generation (3G) networks were designed to offer all of the services found in the GSM portfolio – voice calls, text messages, international roaming, etc – plus a number of more advanced facilities.

The main ‘new’ service offered by 3G networks was the ability to make video phone calls to other 3G users. N etwork operators expected ‘video calling’ to be hugely popular and were somewhat disappointed that virtually nobody used it. Their hope that video calling would be 3G’s ‘killer application’ overlooked the fact that most people use mobile phones while doing something else – walking, working on a PC, even driving – none of which are possible if you’re stuck in front of a camera.

The real new income stream for the new networks has instead been from internet users. The faster data rates offered by 3G allow networks to offer a ‘mobile broadband’ service to compete with more established internet providers. That has proved popular with mobile workers and residential customers who can’t get ‘normal’ broadband connections.

In the UK, 3G licences were won by the four existing GSM operators plus a ‘greenfield’ newcomer – the Hutchison ‘Three’ network – and in the early part of this decade billions of pounds were spent rolling out a new set of base stations across the country.

Keeping it covered
Most operators have concentrated their 3G efforts on urban areas and business parks, where the majority of likely users are to be found, leaving large parts of the country covered only by the older technology. For that reason, shiny new 3G mobile phones also work as 2G phones and ‘fall back’ onto GSM service if no 3G cells are available.

The original four network operators – O2, Orange, Vodafone and T Mobile – still have their GSM networks in place to provide continuity of service to their 3G users. As a new operator, Three doesn’t have a GSM network and has established ‘national roaming’ agreements that allow their users access to other operators’ 2G networks when necessary.

Whatever its differences, 3G is still a ‘cellular’ technology like GSM, with each base station providing services within the limited geographical coverage area of a radio cell. In order to handle the high data rates required to carry mobile broadband services and video calls, 3G radio channels use a far more complex set of technologies than those employed by GSM. That means that, although 3G radio channels carry a much wider range of services than their 2G counterparts, their signals don’t travel as far, leading to smaller cells and a requirement to install a much larger number of base stations.

In many ways, the complexity of the 3G radio system aids the job of a cell site analyst. The smaller cells employed in 3G systems mean that phones are more likely to be close to the base stations they’re connected to when making a call, which in turn means that we can define a smaller area from which those calls are likely to have been made.

Some aspects of 3G cell site analysis are more complex, however; mainly due to the phones’ ability to move between 2G and 3G when required.

If a phone making calls on a 3G network occasionally falls back to using GSM cells, analysts are forced to undertake more comprehensive network surveys and to perform a more complex analysis.

The experts in the field
The superficial similarities between 2G and 3G cell site analysis can be deceptive for the unwary analyst. The team at Focus consists of engineers and analysts whose experience of 2G and 3G networks was gained from working within the mobile phone industry.

We provide defence solicitors with expert assessment of cell site evidence that helps them cut through the jargon and make a meaningful evaluation of the real strength of that evidence. We also provide legal professionals with training in technical topics that can be exchanged for CPD points.

Cell site analysis is an evidential tool increasingly being used by the prosecution – how many defence cases would benefit from access to the same techniques?