Revised guidance for the instruction of experts and expert witnesses to give evidence in civil claims has been issued by the Civil Justice Council.

In an introduction to the guidance, the CJC says: "The purpose of this guidance is to assist litigants, those instructing experts and experts in understanding best practice with regard to compliance with Part 35 of the Civil Procedure Rules...and the overriding objective.

"Experts and those who instruct them should ensure they are familiar with CPR 35 and its associated practice direction (PD or PD35)."

More specifically, according to an article in Local Government Lawyer, the guidance states it is "...important to have regard to the objectives of paragraph 1.4 of the practice direction, namely:

• Encourage the exchange of early and full information about the expert issues involved in the perspective legal claim.

• Enable the parties to avoid or reduce the scope of litigation by agreeing the whole or part of an expert issue before commencement of proceedings; and

• Support the efficient management of proceedings where litigation cannot be avoided."

The document also calls on experts and those instructing them to be aware that some cases may be 'specialist proceedings' where specific rules may apply and some cases may be governed by protocols and some courts who have published their own guidelines as supplements to the CPR.

According to the CJC: "The revised Protocol will now be considered by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee and will, it is anticipated, be annexed to PD 35 in due course."

In its Litigation Notes blog, international law firm Herbert Smith states: "There is little difference in substance from the previous version of the guidance. As before, it does not apply to experts who are instructed only to advise, rather than to prepare evidence for use in proceedings, but does apply if an advisory expert is later instructed for the purposes of the proceedings."