This month has, as usual, brought in a broad range of cases with a wide range of expert witness requirements. Currently I’m managing cases that need orthopaedic surgeons, family psychologists, forensic psychiatrists, paediatricians and aforensic accountant on a variety of criminal and family cases.

The forensic accountancy case has been quite interesting as it involved a large financial institution and an investment fund. Several of its clients invested large sums of money and their investment has since crashed, leaving them with little return on their investment.

We were approached by a solicitor to instruct a forensic accountant who could value all of the relevant businesses in which the bank was investing. We recommended a NIFA-accredited forensic accountant who is currently researching and assessing the value of the companies and therefore whether the financial institution had any prior idea that the businesses would fail, leading to a poor return on investment for its clients.

My most recent medical expert witness case involved a neuropsychologist assessment of the mental capacity of an individual charged with assaulting a taxi driver. A previous brain injury may have resulted in the individual experiencing a black out during the incident, so the expert witness was employed to carry out a full assessment.

The solicitor client came to us with no clear idea of the type of expert he would need for this case so I was able to advise him on the best expert witness. The most appropriate expert was geographically quite far away, but we managed the entire process and the expert filed a report well within the client’s already tight deadlines. The client was extremely pleased with both how we handled the case and the resulting outcome.

Another case has involved the use of a family psychologist to assess the parenting skills of an individual, in a case that was looking at a child’s lack of development and negative behaviour. The parent argued that the issue was ADHD and associated problems, but the local authority argued that the issues were caused by bad parenting. We were able to provide a child psychologist as well as a paediatrician to assess both the child and parent and to rule out any genetic issues.

The case is now much clearer as it has been supported by medical evidence from respected practitioners, and both the local authority and the family can begin to look at moving forwards with the right outcome for all parties.

Day-to-day on all of these cases, and indeed all of the cases we manage, we’re here to offer advice on the right type of expert needed, identify and deliver expert witnesses and ensure that the whole process goes smoothly for both solicitor clients and expert witnesses.