Bond Solon Expert Witness Conference

Written by Mumtaz Hussain

The 2022 Bond Solon Expert Witness Conference took place again this year. The conference was opened with a keynote from the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, who appeared via a remote link. He spoke about the 2011 case of Jones v Kaney, and issues surrounding expert witnesses immunity.

Anthony Gold had two partners on the speaker roster, namely Dr Jock Mackenzie who is a familiar face at the conference, and Jackie Spinks who addressed the expert witness audience for the first time.

Both Jock and Jackie lead lectures to the Bond Solon expert witness community, with regular updates on personal injury and clinical negligence. Jackie works with another Anthony Gold Partner, Amanda Hopkins to provide their personal injury update.

At the conference Jock and Jackie spoke about instructing and working with experts in their respective fields of expertise, namely tortious personal injury and medical or clinical negligence. Jackie focused on the role of the expert witness as set out in part 35 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), along with a review of relevant case law impacting expert witness evidence. She also emphasised how crucial it is for an expert to remain impartial and not let personal views cloud their duties in Part 35 CPR.

Jock, an expert in clinical negligence began his talk with a generic definition of an expert, namely “a person with special knowledge, skill or training in something”. He went on to speak of relevant case law that has impacted clinical negligence cases. His talk was specifically mentioned in the Law Society Gazette, in Eduardo Reyes’ review of the conference.

Our team of expert solicitors handles cases where clients have sustained life changing injuries, and the experts we instruct are of the highest calibre, providing our clients with the best possible independent assessment of their injuries.