Q & A

With Richard Scott Watson Director of RSW medico Legal Ltd

How did you become an expert witness? In 1990 I took on a long term locum Consultant post and it just started from there. It started gradually with the ore simple minor injuries and just built up over the years.

What has been your most challenging expert witness case? There was one murder trial, which taxed everyone involved. As far as personal injury is concerned, a five day trial with a litigant in person proved particularly challenging, but we still won.

I know that you deal with a range of cases, but can you specify a common case that you tend to deal with on a regular basis? There’s a lot of RTAs. It has not reduced, the attempts at fraud have not reduced and the system is creaking under the weight of very low standard initial reports.

What is your average turnaround time for a report? Quickest – about 3 hours. Average if I have all the notes etc, will be three to five days.

“Is the Expert an Expert Witness?”

expert witness

How often would you say your critical analysis is the game changer in a claim? I wish I knew! One of the problems in this field is lack of feedback. I get about two feedback letters a year.

What do you feel is key to being an effective expert witness? Training, training, training (and practice). There are a lot of exceedingly good experts out there who do fantastic work in the NHS but they are not Expert Witnesses and do not understand the rules (although they sign their reports to say they do).

Has anything changed in the years of you acting as expert witness for clients? We used to have the Defendant’s hired guns. Lord Woolf came along and made rules to stop all that. Every time I go to Court it is because the Defendants have managed to find a hired gun willing to risk his career to support their case (they can be referred to the GMC for breaking the Part 35 rules). Little has changed, largely because the Courts will not enforce when faced with these non-Experts.

What are your qualifications with in your industry sector and qualifications that support your expert witness work or comment on recent events or conferences you have attended? This again centres on ‘is the Expert an Expert Witness?’ With the qualification and courses available I would say that anyone who has not at least done regular training cannot call themselves an Expert Witness for cases covered by Part 35. Preferable all should have the Cardiff University Expert Witness Certificate run by Bond Solon.

What makes you the go to expert witness in your specific field? I stick to the rules, so everybody knows where I am coming from. I am willing to change my opinion if new evidence says I should, but will not do so purely under pressure without that evidence.

Is there any aspect of expert witness that you feel would surprise someone who was considering adding this to their CV? Solicitors constantly (like about twice a week) ask for reports to be made more favourable (valuable) for their clients. They know they should not do so, and that we should not agree to such requests, especially since LVI vs Khan has shown Experts the danger of altering reports without evidence, although it was an absolute rule prior to that anyway.

RSW Medico Legal Ltd To instruct RSW directly please contact: 01384 441 126 carolcouzens@ymail.com rswmedicolegal@gmail.com