Expert Witness Journal Issue 63 October 2025 - Flipbook - Page 8
Instructing An Expert To Produce A
Report? This Recent High Court Case
Highlights The Importance Of Giving
Them All The Relevant Information
High Court judge renders expert’s report “unreliable” because it had been produced
without sight of all the relevant evidence - a cautionary tale for both instructing solicitors
and expert witnesses.
Judge Charman concluded that the claimant’s
expert “did not take, or did not record, an accurate
history of [the claimant’s] condition”. As his 昀椀ndings
were based on inaccurate history of the claimant’s
condition, his report was “likely to be unreliable”.
1. Introduction
In Rebecca Hepworth v Dr Amanda Coates [2025]
EWHC 1907 (KB), the claimant brought an action in
clinical negligence against her GP (the defendant).
She alleged that the defendant failed to diagnose
red 昀氀ag symptoms of cauda equina syndrome at a
face-to-face consultation on 5 November 2018.
4. What was the issue with the expert’s
oral evidence?
In addition to the issues with his report, the
judgment also highlighted issues with the expert’s
oral evidence.
The case failed on the issue of liability, with the
claimant’s expert evidence being a particular cause
of concern.
“During his cross examination, [the expert] referred to
having seen in the medical notes which he had looked at
recently, a note of [the claimant] falling down the stairs
and attending hospital where a head scan was carried out.
A break was taken to give the expert time to 昀椀nd the relevant
note. After the break, he referred to a note of another fall
which was very clearly not the one he referred to as it did
not have the features he had previously described. He was
given a further opportunity to 昀椀nd the note overnight. Next
morning, he identi昀椀ed a note which referred to an MRI
head scan. However, the scan related to reported sinus
issues and not a fall.”
2. What were the main issues with the
expert’s report?
The main issue with the expert’s report was that he
had prepared it without having consulted several
pieces of evidence in the case, which were key to the
issues he addressed in his report. This included not
only the reports of other experts in the case but also
the claimant’s witness statement.
The claimant’s expert also attended a meeting with
the defendant’s expert without having seen all the
evidence in the case.
- Judge Charman
3. How did this issue a昀昀ect the claimant expert’s
overall evidence?
This issue led to serious discrepancies between
the expert’s evidence on the claimant’s health and
the claimant’s own evidence in both of her witness
statements.
EXPERT WITNESS JOURNAL
Whilst Judge Charman was satis昀椀ed that the
expert did not deliberately set out to mislead the
court, his conduct did “cast serious doubt on the
reliability of his oral evidence generally”. Instead of
acknowledging or admitting he had made a mistake,
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2025
