Expert witnesses play a key role in the justice system and it has always been the case that expert reports and other documents referred to in court were in the public domain. But getting hold of them has not been straightforward and concerns were raised in Lady Hale’s judgment in Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd v Dring [2019] UKSC 38 a  case relating to asbestos exposure. This set out something of a mish-mash of practices and rules and the issue, together with the increasing reliance on electronic court bundles gave rise to the work of  Transparency and Open Justice Board.

The resulting Access to Public Domain Documents Pilot, postponed from earlier this year, will now go live on 1st January 2026, initially for year. Details of the pilot are set out in Practice Direction 51ZH but the key points that experts should take note of are as follows;

Filing of reports will be the norm, exceptions require a Filing Modification Order or FMO to be applied for.

In summary while expert reports were always theoretically available to non-parties access should become a great deal easier, see the Academy website for more detailed guidance.