Samantha Bangham's Week in Cases 22 March 2013

This week I attended the Jordan's Evidence in Child Abuse conference in London which was absolutely fascinating. Mr Justice Baker gave the opening address in which he highlighted the impact of the family justice reforms on expert evidence in family proceedings. He maintained that experts will continue to play a vital role in the single family court and that the effect of r 25.1 of the FPR 2010 was to raise the bar for the instruction of experts but that manifestly the answer to the question 'is your expert necessary' would in many cases be in the affirmative.

This sentiment was shared by Dr Jayaratnam Jayamohan consultant neurosurgeon based at the John Radcliffe Hospital. His parting thought was that a child going through the legal process was entitled to the same treatment as one going through the medical process. In the latter a child would be provided with a number of experts in order to arrive at an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment plan and therefore why should...

Read the full article here.