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Dr Bashir Qureshi. Expert Witness in Cultural, Religious & Ethnic issues in Litigation and also in GP Clinical Negligence, London.
Expert Witness Blog
Queen's Speech and Brexit negotiations set to cause headaches for experts
At the time of writing the country is in a state of turmoil following the result of the General Election. Two events were due to take place on 19 June: the Brexit negotiations were set to kick off at the same time as The Queen’s Speech was outlining the legislative programme for the government – a government that has a somewhat different complexion from the one envisaged when the event was scheduled. Both events look set to be delayed.
Both will contain elements of interest to the expert witness. While any Queen’s Speech incorporates legislation that will need to be interpreted by judges and lawyers, this one will contain the Great Repeal Bill to incorporate a multitude of EU legislation into UK law following Brexit.
The Brexit negotiations, on the other hand, will determine the extent to which the UK goes its own way. Both events will cause huge headaches for those experts, such as engineers and environmental consultants, who will be tasked with understanding just what has gone and what is left.
MORE:
- It’s a busy time for the CQC
- Appointment aims to preserve a tradition of justice for all
- Was Queen’s Speech legislation distracted by referendum?
- Are increased prosecutions a deterrent to fraud?
- No let-up in 'special measures' recommendations for NHS trusts
- Were conciliatory tones just for the occasion - or are we still gearing up for a fight over human rights?
- Go west, young man, if you want to make a buck or two; but don’t sleep in the subway
- Legal profession is at war with itself and the medical experts can’t agree, either
- M'learned friends are fighting among themselves, while the whiplash bug has come back to bite
- Scots start their own legal upheaval and stolen bikes are no joke
Expert Witness News
Bush & Company launches annual conference with extraordinary theme
Celebrating the extraordinary achievements of people who have overcome significant injury to lead ordinary lives, Bush & Company’s third annual conference will take place on 6 July 2017 at the Nottingham Belfry Hotel.
As the largest and fastest growing provider of expert witness and case management services in the UK, Bush & Company is bringing together inspiring speakers from the sports, bionics and robotics, advanced prosthetics and legal sectors. Sharing the latest research, developments and technologies that are helping people with injuries get ‘Back in the Game’, the conference promises to be informative and inspirational, as well as a great opportunity to network with a diverse range of ‘on the ball’ experts who work within the industry.
MORE:
- Solicitors organise catastrophic injury conference
- Maxine to undergo freezing nights to help Burning Nights in epic charity trek!
- Could driverless cars pose challenges for investigators as well as insurers?
- First National Expert Witness Survey 2016 in association with The Times
- No need for Brexit panic over IP laws, says Freeths
- Latest PI measures condemned by lawyers’ leader
- Accuracy strengthens its international project advisory and disputes team with a senior hire and team leader in London
- Divorce – what has been hidden can often be revealed
- Legacy giving on the rise as fundraising goes under the spotlight
- Grant announced for new forensics centre ahead of regulator’s report
Expert Witness Legal News
Investigation into rogue drug testing continues
Randox Testing Services has published an update on its investigation into the manipulation of toxicology data at its laboratories in Manchester and Crumlin.
The statement says: “RTS itself uncovered what it believed was evidence of data manipulation in January 2017 when it acted as whistleblower in reporting its suspicions to the police. The subsequent police enquiry into practices at RTS laboratories and those run by other companies has led to the arrest of two people. A criminal investigation into their alleged activities is on-going.”
The statement goes on to detail the scale of the problem.
MORE:
- Drug driving convictions challenged after lab arrests
- Pimlico Plumbers v Smith Appeal Judgment will help workers in the gig economy says EHRC
- Report into bulk powers welcomed by government
- Landmark asbestosis ruling is good news for sufferers
- Lawyers lose out on £4bn of business from SME’s every year
- Largest-ever legal needs survey published
- Top judge calls for end to ‘needless dispute of science’
- BASC welcomes firearms provision in new Policing and Crime Bill
- Flight delayed passengers CAN claim compensation for delays caused by lightning strikes
- New sentencing guidelines introduced for corporate manslaughter, health and safety and food safety
Expert Witness : Environment
Environmental professionals warn over future outlook
Experts from the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) have expressed concern about the future implementation of European environmental standards following the UK’s secession from the EU, particularly given the uncertainty thrown up by the election result.
IEMA’s chief policy advisor, Martin Baxter (pictured), said: “The outcome of the general election raises significant challenges, from forming a government to developing and implementing a legislative programme: all against a backdrop of the UK’s Article 50 notification to leave the EU.”
“IEMA members expressed significant concern in the run up to the election on a wide range of sustainability issues including air quality, climate change and circular economy. It is vital that the short-term uncertainties are quickly resolved so that long-term challenges can be properly addressed.”
MORE:
- Campaigners to challenge environmental costs cap removal
- Guidance on flood risk updated
- Get process plant design right from the start, urges Axion Consulting
- Impact Assessments provide a clearer picture
- Perfect Storm for Air Monitors
- SuDS seminar follows opening of consultation
- Climate meeting generates optimism for a final agreement
- Four Scottish committees to scrutinise planning framework
- Electricity plan hopes to stimulate investment in renewables
- Funding initiatives will help promote ‘green’ farming
Expert Witness : Criminal
Hillsborough disaster researcher to speak at national criminology conference
A leading academic known for his investigative work into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster has been named as a keynote speaker at this year's British Society of Criminology (BSC) Conference.
Professor Phil Scraton, criminologist and author from Queen's University Belfast, will be a plenary speaker at the UK's most prestigious criminology conference, which this year is being held at Sheffield Hallam University (July 4 - 7).
The conference, titled 'Forging Social Justice: Local Challenges, Global Complexities', is expected to attract hundreds of practitioners, policy makers, academics and students from the criminology community across the world.
MORE:
- The stakes are too high to simply plod on, legal expert warns as UK mortgage fraud increases by 50%
- Audit office reveals HMRC fraud estimates
- Accurate statistics needed to fight fraud, says panel
- Rioting sentences 'excessive and arbitrary', study claims
- Crime survey shows another fall, while reported crime remains steady
- Criminal courts head for a digital revolution
- Criminal advocacy report prompts swift responses and measured reflection
- Audit office publishes review of changes to criminal justice system
- Legal Aid Agency warns advocates about keeping records
- New criminal offence for jurors tops the list of Law Commission recommendations
Expert Witness : Medico Legal
Fixed fee proposals welcomed – with reservations
New Government proposals for fixing legal fees in medical negligence cases have been given a cautious welcome by lawyers.
The proposals, currently out to consultation, are for a fixed cap on all clinical negligence cases up to £25,000. The aim, says the Department of Health, is to prevent rising litigation costs within the NHS. Currently, there is no limit on legal costs that can be recouped. It is expected the new cap will save the NHS up to £45m a year.
The department cites an instance where costs of £83,000 were claimed for a case in which the patient was awarded £1,000. The total bill for the NHS was £1.5bn in the financial year 2015-16.
Announcing the proposals, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) said: “It’s important that, when significant mistakes happen in the NHS, patients are able to have an open dialogue with a trust about what went wrong, receive reassurance of what is being learnt and can discuss what form of recompense or redress may be appropriate. Legal action should only be one part of this process.
MORE:
- One year on, MedCo is dealing with start-up glitches
- Cost of private practice claims rockets
- What is a pain medicine specialist?
- When ‘never’ in the NHS really means 1,000 times
- Latest report into perinatal maternal deaths welcomed by professions
- South American implants manufacturer has CE Mark suspended
- Scandals continue over NHS trusts as findings are published
- Plastic surgeons call for better informed press reporting
- Francis Review seeks the views of those on the front line
- Health experts encouraged by initial primary school flu pilot results
Expert Witness : Technology
Consultant warned of ransomware attack
Leading healthcare IT consultant Dr Saif Abed (pictured) must have experienced an acute bout of déjà vu when reports of the ransomware attack on the NHS began filtering through from such disparate sources as hospitals, GP surgeries and even pharmacies.
Dr Abed, a founding partner of consultancy AbedGraham, had blogged back in August last year – under the chillingly prophetic title Ransomware will kill a patient – that such software was a major threat because of the procedures it could disrupt.
MORE:
- CCTV: national strategy launched
- The Law Society of Scotland honoured at new Cyber Awards
- Updated aid to CCTV testing published
- Care home CCTV petition reaches landmark
- Expert analysis can help uncover the truth
- Police film themselves to help avoid doubt
- No address? No problem, we’ll serve injunction via Twitter
- Artificial intelligence in law
- Reforms to HMRC IT system meet with ‘limited success’
- UK arrests form part of international crackdown on Blackshades
Expert Witness : Building and Property
CIC provides updated guidance on adjudication
The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has published a new Users’ Guide to Adjudication, which replaces the previous guide from the Construction Umbrella Bodies Adjudication Task Group, produced in 2003.
Since its introduction in the late 1990s, adjudication has come to dominate alternative dispute resolution in the construction industry. Adjudication was envisaged as a process that construction companies could use with or without external professional assistance.
Over the years many novice users turned to the original Users’ Guide to Adjudication, to understand how adjudication works and to decide if it was a process that would help them.
The hope is that the new guide will assist both those who wish to take a dispute to adjudication and those who have received a notice of adjudication.
MORE:
- Homebuyers take risks by foregoing surveys, says insurer
- Royal Borough welcomes outcome of Enderby Wharf Judicial Review
- Construction firms fined millions for health and safety offences since February 2016
- FMB welcomes court decision on affordable housing
- Court case triggers new DHF call to check gates for safety
- The alternative to litigation is cost-effective
- Adjudication may not help those who fail to follow statutory payment regime
- Finding the right experts can make all the difference in global construction disputes
- New RIBA contracts for small projects
- Expert surveyors get new guidance
Expert Witness : Animal & Farming
Scotland set to reintroduce selective ‘tail-docking’
The Scottish Government’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee has voted to allow the reintroduction of so-called tail-docking for a number of breeds of hunting dogs. The proposals will allow the removal of up to the end third of the tails of spaniels and hunt point retrievers within five days of being born if they are destined to be working dogs.
The proposal will now go to a vote by the Scottish Parliament.
The docking of dogs’ tails has been banned in Scotland since 2007. However, if changes to legislation are approved, puppies could have their tails shortened where a vet believes they are likely to be used as a working dog and are at risk of serious tail injury in later life.
MORE:
- Changes to dog legislation affect owners
- BASC works with Law Commission to improve firearms law
- Food fraud – the crime in our shopping baskets
- Expert views sought on bovine TB measures
- Consultation launched on pig meat inspection
- Management of deer populations exercises Scottish Parliamentary committee
- Study will develop ‘spotter’ system for meat inspections
- Penalties to increase for dog attacks
- Microchipping helps reunite dogs with owners
- Zoo society goes on the attack over badger cull
Parliament, Legislation And Public Sector
Psychoactive Substances Act: one year on
In May last year the Psychoactive Substances Act came into force. One year on there have been a number of articles published reflecting on the Act and its effectiveness, particularly with reference to the availability of new psychoactive substances, or so-called ‘legal highs’ as they were termed prior to the Act.
In April Home Office Minister Sarah Newton (pictured) reacted to criticism from some quarters of the legislation.
“We have known about the devastating consequences of Spice for some time,” she wrote, “and we have acted to give police the powers they need to take action, making third generation synthetic cannabinoids Class B drugs on a par with ketamine and amphetamines. We will continue to monitor its impact and if we need to do more, we will.”
MORE:
- Parliamentarians form ADR group
- Appeal court overturns animal legacy ruling
- Chancellor's standstill on inheritance tax good news for charities
- New Code of Ethics goes before Parliament
- Committee reports on Scottish reform Bill
- MPs take MoJ to task over contracting out
- Audit office offers two cheers to MoJ on language contract
- Former DPP to head up Labour’s victims’ ‘taskforce’
- Peers call for simplification of power of attorney process
- MPs call for stronger protection of intellectual property
Expert Witness : World News
GDC stance on tooth whitening gets European backing
In recent issues of Your Expert Witness we have highlighted the on-going issue of unqualified people carrying out illegal tooth whitening – and the efforts being made by the General Dental Council (GDC) to bring offenders to book. Since the last issue highlighted a case in Wales there have been prosecutions in Orpington, Salford and London.
At the end of last year the legal position on tooth whitening of the GDC received the backing of the organisation that brings together all European dental regulators. FEDCAR – the Federation of European Dental Competent Authorities and Regulators – published a statement endorsing its approach as the one to be used across Europe.
MORE:
- Law Society awarded special status by UN
- Malaysia opens its doors to foreign law firms
- EU budget fraud: committee votes on standardised rules
- New EU rules will allow easier confiscation of criminal assets
- Europe and US reach agreement on trade regulation
- Consultation launched on future of ECHR and European Court
- Deadline for EC maritime expert group approaches
- FCO can help travellers avoid falling foul of foreign laws
- Law Society warns of “death of free speech” in Fiji
- EU Prosecutor’s Office proposed to fight fraud
