Lawyer Monthly - Expert Witness Awards 2023

not achieved parity of esteem between physical and mental health. How do you maintain objectivity and impartiality when providing your expert testimony? One is neither a representative of the claimant nor the defendant but is an independent expert whose duty is always to the court. I never lose sight of this fact. For me, the key to maintaining impartiality and objectivity in expert testimony is holding true to the core ethical principles that guide medical practice. As doctors, we are trained to do no harm, respect patient autonomy and act fairly in all situations. This means fairness in clinical decision-making and fairness in expert testimony. How do you handle situations where your professional opinion may not align with the perspective of the legal team that has retained you? This comes back to knowing your duty is to the court, not to any other party. I remind myself that I am the Psychiatric Expert witness and could be crossexamined on the evidence I provide. I have to maintain integrity and be confident that I will be able to defend my opinion in court. Having said that, one has to keep a degree of humility. I have had the pleasure of working with many astute solicitors and barristers who have, at times, highlighted points in a case that has made me refine my opinion, only if it still makes clinical sense to me as a Psychiatrist. Many of our readers will assume that being cross-examined in court is a stressful experience. Can you share any strategies you use to prepare and how you handle this pressure? Cross-examination in court is indeed a stressful experience. I am lucky that my court appearances have been relatively few in number, as most of the cases I have prepared reports for have been settled before getting to that stage. I think the best strategy for any potentially stressful situation, such as crossexamination, is good preparation. That means ensuring that you know your own evidence inside out and being clear about the rationale for your opinions, as they will undoubtedly be challenged. That said, one should remain humble and human. Expert witness courses help, as does a good night’s sleep the night before a hearing. Considering the workplace transformations due to the recent pandemic, have you observed an increase in cases related to occupational stress, and has this impacted your evaluation method? That’s an interesting question. The sudden change in working patterns due to the pandemic inevitably brought additional stress into our lives. However, I have to say that I personally have not seen that translated into increased cases of occupational stress coming my way. This is perhaps surprising. What I have seen and continue to see is clinical negligence and personal injury cases being impacted negatively by pandemic-related issues. These have been mostly due to social distancing restrictions. For example, clients who have been hospitalised following a serious road traffic accident, had a traumatic postnatal complication or delayed cancer diagnosis, have had to face hospital admission and treatment on their own. Social isolation has always been an important causal factor in Psychiatry, but the pandemic took it to new levels. As part of Peak Medicolegal Services, you offer psychiatric medico-legal reports. Can you walk us through the process of creating these reports and ensuring their accuracy and comprehensiveness? That’s right, Medico-legal report writing is the bread and butter of my Expert witness work. The first stage is the triaging of instructions from solicitors, which come to me via Parkhead Consultancy. I will read through the instruction letter, check if it falls within my area of expertise and consider whether there are any conflicts of interest. Appointments are then arranged faceto-face or virtually with the claimant. I set aside enough time for this in order “It was very rewarding to offer a specialist Psychiatric perspective on medico-legal issues at the interface between Medicine and Law.”

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