Featured Articles – Expert Witness Features – page 35

Home James! Is a new driving force at work?

Think of chauffeur-driven vehicles these days and the chances are you will immediately think of garishly daubed Hummers and bright pink stretch limo's filled with screaming hen party attendants falling over the back seat while trying to recreate Tom Hanks in Big. I certainly do.

But are we missing a trick here? Given the largely indifferent change in the amount of traffic around London due to the congestion charge, and the consistently high train prices for a decent seat, could chauffer driven services be the answer for today's legal professional? I decided to find out.

Pain and trauma: it can be what you make of it

PSYCHOLOGISTS are regularly instructed in personal injury litigation to assess for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain; however, problems are inherent in the assessment of each. Firstly, both are characterised by subjectively reported symptoms, so that careful assessment is required to discern real from factitious PTSD and genuine pain from malingered presentation. Secondly, both are potentially associated with financial gain via litigation or with personal gain, such as sympathy and care from an overinvolved spouse/partner or time away from a disliked job. Again, careful assessment is required. This article highlights typical instructions to psychologists in chronic pain litigation and the key characteristics of PTSD in relation to medicolegal assessments; in both cases the need for a comprehensive assessment is paramount.

Cultural, religious and ethnic issues in gynaecology litigation

IN MY FIRST case, in June 1992, a Pakistani Muslim woman, aged 21, accused an English gynaecologist of removing her entire reproductive system without her consent, and that the operation caused her great loss in life.

She had signed a consent form for laparatomy, and her mother was with her at the time of the operation. However, a High Court judge ruled that the gynaecologist was not negligent when he tragically mistook an endometriosis mass as a spreading ovarian cancer.

My report on the case included the following cultural, religious and ethnic issues.

Expert testimony is part of the service

An expert witness service is one of the range of services supplied by User Friendly Psychiatry Ltd (UFP), a mental health consultancy managed and led by registered mental health nurse and psychotherapist Caroline Williams. UFP provides training, corporate services and cognitive behaviour psychotherapy (CBT).

UFP’s mental health nursing expert witness service is provided by Caroline herself. She is a registered mental health nurse with additional skills and qualifications at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels in cognitive behaviour therapy, management and clinical teaching. She is also a teaching Fellow at the University of Manchester and has years of experience working for the NHS. Caroline is a trained expert witness and has completed the Bond Solon expert witness CUBS programme. She is also on the Royal College of Nursing expert witness database.

Complex loss of earnings claims – where to start

THE ESSENTIAL TASKS in assessing loss of earnings are to determine:

Actual post accident earnings
Likely future earnings
The level of earnings that it appears the claimant would have enjoyed but for the accident.

This involves understanding the claimant’s sources of pre and post accident income, how profitable these were and what was required to achieve these levels of profitability.