86 LAWYER MONTHLY EXPERT WITNESS AWARDS 2025 defendants. The intention of PMS is always to assist lawyers and their clients by giving a clear explanation of the medical events with a balanced opinion about breach of duty and causation, as well as highlighting areas of uncertainty. At that time, my offices were full of large ring binders containing paper records, which were often disorganised and difficult to use. Digital records have revolutionised medicolegal work but, early on, we had to invest considerable time and effort in IT. I pioneered novel software solutions for document handling and storage, and to organise the workload for expert witnesses. The system ensures a smooth relationship with our customer base of lawyers, so that reports are delivered within the estimated turnaround time. Skilled office staff provide liaison and manage the invoices, allowing the experts more time to draft reports. In 2014 with the medicolegal practice expanding, I stopped doing clinical obstetrics and worked on a gynaecology only contract. In order to continue to provide high quality reports in obstetrics, my highly regarded colleague Ruth Mason, who is a Consultant Obstetrician, joined Pyper Medical Services in 2016. Ruth undertook medicolegal training and gained the Cardiff University Bond Solon Expert Witness certificate. I acted as a mentor and oversaw her early reports. She now prepares 40 obstetric reports per year and has attended many coroner’s inquests involving stillbirths and deaths of neonates. We are proud that she received an award for “Best Obstetric Expert Witness 2024 (UK)”. Rahila Khan joined PMS in 2018. She is a consultant obstetrician, who completed a Fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Connecticut and has expertise in high-risk pregnancy. Following an Expert Report Writing course with Inspire MediLaw, I provided further training and supervision in the legal aspects of preparing reports. Her services are now much in demand, and she prepares over 40 reports per year for both claimants and defendants. Jim English is a consultant gynaecologist specialising in laparoscopic surgery, who previously worked as an O&G consultant in Worthing. He has an international reputation for complex laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis. After Expert Witness training with Inspire MediLaw, he joined PMS in 2022 to provide reports on the injuries occurring during laparoscopic surgery, which has largely replaced open abdominal surgery. Like all PMS experts, his caseload has increased to a 4 month turnaround time. Pyper Medical Services holds regular team meetings to improve efficiency, including communication with solicitors, organisation of workload and IT issues. We also have a lively series of expert meetings where a case is presented, or an outside speaker sought to discuss various aspects of our medicolegal practice. I am glad to say that PMS has a stable and dedicated set of staff who are all fascinated by and committed to Expert Witness work. You have trained and mentored many colleagues in the field. What do you see as the most important aspects of developing the next generation of expert witnesses in obstetrics and gynaecology? Most consultants have excellent knowledge of their speciality and good clinical experience. However, they do not “think like lawyers” and need training to appreciate what is legally relevant to a case, as well as anticipating the questions that the solicitors need to be answered! There are many pitfalls: appreciating the difference between “failing to provide best practice” and “breach of duty” is vital. Furthermore, national guidance about “best practice” changes with time and an incident 10 years ago cannot be judged by current standards. The causation of some medical problems is obvious but, often, with chronic pain and other ongoing symptoms, the mechanism is unclear and the cause uncertain. This is not what litigation lawyers like to hear, but it is the expert’s duty to explain the complexities and put them into the context of the case. Maintaining impartiality and objectivity is crucial in clinical negligence cases. How do you ensure that your reports and testimony remain unbiased, even in highly contentious cases? PMS experts always try to prepare the same report, whether we are instructed by claimants or defendants. The “facts” of a case are distilled from the medical records into the chronology section and should be the same in each type of report. Opinion sections are more likely to vary, but the opposing expert will have had a similar training and be familiar with the same NICE or RCOG guidelines. It is likely that other experts will reach similar conclusions, and it is a matter of drilling down on the pertinent details of the case. Many single joint expert reports have been written and there is an increased responsibility to be fair and accurate, with no opposing expert to pick up details or challenge our opinions. From 2011 to 2013, I was instructed to prepare 90 single joint
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