Cases - Simon Andrew Matthews v Tarmac Bricks and Tiles Ltd

Record details

Name

Simon Andrew Matthews v Tarmac Bricks and Tiles Ltd

Date

[2000]

Citation

CILL 1597, CA

Keywords

Expert witness

Summary

In a personal injury case, counsel for the defendants objected to a date fixed for trial by the judge at the pre-trial review. This is because it was one of a list of dates when the defendants' medical expert witnesses would not be available. The judge refused to change the trial date and the defendants appealed. The Court of Appeal upheld the judge's decision:

'The approach which was being adopted by the lawyers before the judge was wholly inappropriate. They were adopting what in the past has been an approach which has been too frequently adopted. They were regarding it as the responsibility of the court to defer the hearing to a date which could, with convenience, be met by the doctors.'

Further:

'The parties cannot always expect the courts to meet their convenience ... If there is no agreement as to the dates which are acceptable to the court, the lawyers for the parties must be in a position to give the reasons why certain dates are not convenient to doctors.'