Cases - Phillips v Symes
Record details
- Name
- Phillips v Symes
- Date
- [2004]
- Citation
- EWHC 2330 (Ch)
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Expert witness - Civil Procedure Rules
- Summary
-
In an action to recover costs, where the mental capacity of the defendant was in issue, the claimants sought to join the defendant's expert witness, a consultant psychiatrist. The court held that it had power to make a costs order against an expert witness who caused significant expense by giving his evidence in disregard of his duties to the court. No special warning to the expert was necessary.
'The only warning required to be given to an expert is the self evident one set out in the Civil Procedure Rules and the declaration or statement of truth set out in paragraph 2.4 of Practice Direction 35, which the expert had to verify.
That declaration warns the expert, in effect that he can be subjected to contempt proceedings if he gives false evidence. Therefore, in the context of an expert witness, no further warning is required.
Although there are sanctions available against such experts who breach their duties to the court, those are ineffective in some circumstances, where the proper sanction is the ability to compensate the person who has suffered loss by reason of the evidence given.'