Cases - Longley v South West Regional Health Authority

Record details

Name
Longley v South West Regional Health Authority
Date
[1983]
Citation
25 BLR 56, QBD
Keywords
Expert witness
Summary

In a dispute over fees claimed by an expert witness appearing as a claims consultant in an arbitration, the judge had to consider the status of the expert. The respondent health authority argued that, as the claims consultant had no professional qualification, for example, in quantity surveying, he could not be considered an expert. The judge held the argument to be 'groundless':

'An expert may be qualified by skill or experience, as well as by professional qualification.'

It was also argued that he was not an expert witness since he had not actually been called before the arbitration settled in mid-hearing. But the claimants' solicitor could show that the witness would have been called at the end of the trial on the schedules he had prepared, which disposed of that argument.

The final argument was that such an expert was superfluous before an arbitrator who was himself an expert in the subject. The judge rejected this:

'One reason for having an expert arbitrator is so that he should be able to understand the expert evidence, not so that he should have to do without it.'