Experts

There is no implied sanction for failing to serve a medical report, the High Court has ruled, reinstating a complex personal injury claim which had been struck out.

The ability for experts to give evidence remotely in the new era of virtual hearings will be “very welcome” in some cases, a senior judge said today.

The number of medical reporting organisations on the MedCo system has shrunk by a third in only eight months, it emerged last week. By the end of August 2018 there were 78 MROs in the system, compared with 120 at 31 December 2017.

It was “a serious transgression” for an expert witness to make changes to his evidence after sending a first draft to his client’s solicitors, the High Court has ruled. However, it rejected the other side’s contention that the expert had come across as a “hired gun”.

The president of the Upper Tribunal’s Lands Chamber has warned expert witnesses that it could refer them to their professional bodies if they break the rules on conditional fees. Sir David Holgate said experts owed the same “duty of candour” to the court as solicitors.

The High Court has rejected an application for summary judgment by a medical reporting agency seeking to reclaim almost £1.6m in fees from a law firm. Master Clark said the information clause in the agreement between them did not create an “obligation to account” on the part of the law firm.

A body representing ‘tier 2’ medical reporting organisations (MROs) has accused MedCo of “cashing in” on its members after it announced significant hikes in fees. It follows what Litigation Futures understands has been a culling of the 14 tier 1 MROs – the high-volume, national providers – during the recent auditing programme.

A High Court judge has thrown out judicial reviews brought by two medical reporting organisations (MROs) against their suspension from the MedCo portal. Mr Justice Lavender said there was “obviously something unsatisfactory” about the approach taken by Med Chambers and Prime Medicals.