The Criminal Procedure Rules Committee have issued a new consolidated set of the Criminal Procedure Rules which came into force on 6^th October 2025.

The Criminal Procedure Rules 2025 replaces the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 and incorporates the 9 sets of amendments made since the 2020 rules were published. The Committee has also published a guide to the new Rules. criminal-procedure-rules-2025.pdf

In addition, the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee have just published the. Fourth Amendment to the Criminal Practice Directions 2023 – November 2025 – Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. The changes, some of which will impact on experts in Chapter 7, come into force on 18^th November 2025.

The amendments:

1. require the disclosure in an expert report of any authoritative advice or warning relevant to the content of the report;
2. require the disclosure in an expert report of any past adverse finding or disciplinary proceeding, even if since resolved; and
3. ensure the compatibility of the declarations of compliance required by (i) the Criminal Practice Directions, and (ii) the Forensic Science Regulator’s statutory code of practice.

Updated Expert Declaration
In addition to the changes outlined above there are also changes that need to be made to the Expert’s Declaration, full details are on the Academy website.

 

Don’t forget to update any templates you have that are effected by the changes and to satisfy yourself that any report issued after 18^th November 2025 complies with the new requirements.

Most people will be aware by now that a pilot scheme for “access to public domain documents” in the Commercial Court, London Circuit Court and the Financial List is due to start in October.  Guidance and details of the pilot aren’t out yet but it’s expected that at least some expert reports will become publicly available.

In the meantime experts who are concerned about the possibility should start to think about making sure the opinions they provide are consistent, not just within a given report but within all their reports. Of course that’s not really a new requirement and from time to time an expert will be challenged to explain why their opinion today seems to differ from a previous opinion.

That’s exactly what happened in Abbott Diabetes Care v Sinocare a trademark dispute about the design of an ‘on-body’ glucose monitor. The Defendant’s market research expert had examined surveys conducted by the Claimant ‘s expert who unfortunately was unable to testify because of ill-health.  This placed more emphasis than normal on her evidence which was critical of the approach used in the surveys that supported the claim.

She was also challenged to explain why her opinions appear to vary in this case compared to her views on what the claimant’s counsel viewed as an equivalent survey in Tesco v Lidl. Fortunately she appears to not only have held entirely consistent views but was well-prepared enough to, as the judge explained “emphatically and, in my view, convincingly, rejected the suggestion that there was no material difference between the Traditional Survey and the Lidl survey.”

What this case does emphasis is firstly the need  to be objective and consistent  between cases and in the light of the impending Open Justice pilot experts should add a new question to their internal checklist. Not only should they ask ‘what would I say if were on the other side’ but ‘is this the same opinion that I gave last time and if not, why not?’

Secondly if you have appeared in court and your evidence has been discussed (or from this year made public in full)  you would be well advised to read up on any relevant cases before giving evidence!

The Academy’s Knowledge Hub. includes practical advice and guidance for experts who want to check their practe, including for example the Model Form of Expert’s Report and Guidance Notes on Meetings of Experts, Contingency Fees & Remote Evidence. As a member you can also call our Technical Helpline for help and advice on ethical and practical issues from dealing with instructions to getting paid.

 

Being instructed as an expert witness can be an interesting and fulfilling aspect of professional life, but it’s not without its challenges. One of the most common (and under-discussed) issues experts face is how to manage their instructing solicitors.

It’s easy to assume that once you’re engaged, expectations are fixed and your role is simply to deliver. But in reality, managing your instructing solicitor is a key part of ensuring that what you deliver is useful, compliant, and capable of standing up in court.

Academy Council Member Helen Gregory of Opus Forensic Accounting has helpfully provided her five top tips for how expert witnesses can work most effectively with their instructing solicitors.

1. Be realistic about deadlines — and say no if needed

There’s a temptation to take on every instruction that comes your way, particularly if you’re self-employed and don’t know where the next one is coming from. But accepting unrealistic deadlines can cause problems for all involved. Rushed reports are more likely to contain errors, lack clarity, or fail to meet procedural requirements. And in the worst-case scenario, they can be thrown out by the court entirely.

It’s better to decline a job than to submit something half-baked. Be clear at the outset about what’s feasible and remember to factor in time not just for writing the report, but for reviewing documents, requesting further information, meetings with the solicitor and client, responding to queries, and navigating any surprises.

2. Build in contingency: Something will crop up

In theory, you receive a neat, complete bundle of documents and a clear brief. In practice, things are rarely that tidy. Documents arrive late or in multiple batches, some are missing or out of order, and the questions you need to address will take time to answer.

You need to allow for contingency: time to request clarifications, review additional information, and think critically about what you’re being asked to do. The more flexibility you build in, the more likely you are to produce a report that is robust, complete, and helpful to the court.

3. Understand the limits of your visibility

One key challenge is that, as an expert, you often operate in isolation from the wider case. You may see only a snapshot of the full picture. It’s important to remain focused on your instructed area and resist the temptation to speculate beyond it.

At the same time, remember that lack of context doesn’t remove your duty of care. If documents appear incomplete, if your opinion feels influenced, or if something doesn’t sit right, you must raise it. You are reporting to the court, not acting as an advocate for either party.

4. Deliver bad news where it’s warranted

It’s not always easy to say your client doesn’t have a case. But as an expert witness, you have a duty to give your honest, professional opinion, even if that opinion isn’t what the instructing solicitor wants to hear.

Be aware that some may (consciously or otherwise) attempt to steer your opinion. Stay alert to missing evidence, biased questions, or subtle attempts to frame a narrative. Your integrity and credibility depend on your ability to remain independent and evidence-based.

5. Know the rules and review your report thoroughly

Expert reports must comply with the relevant Civil, Criminal or Family Procedure Rules. That includes formatting, content, and declarations. A technical report that omits the correct statement of truth or includes the wrong version risks being ruled inadmissible.

It’s also essential to re-read what you’ve written. That may sound obvious, but when deadlines loom and multiple drafts are flying around, it’s easy to miss a critical detail. The best option is to ask someone else unconnected to the case to read and cast it, but that may not always be possible so do make time to review your own work with a clear head.  You may be cross-examined on your report, so make sure you’re comfortable defending it.

Final thoughts

Whatever your discipline, acting as an expert means more than just knowing your subject. It requires planning, time management, self-awareness, and the confidence to push back when needed.

Clear communication with instructing solicitors, realistic boundaries, and careful preparation are vital. If in doubt, The Academy of Experts offers training, guidance and support to help navigate the more complex aspects of expert witness work.

Helen is a Partner at Opus Forensic Accounting, part of the Opus Business Advisory Group, and brings over 25 years’ experience in civil and criminal investigations, commercial disputes, and matrimonial matters. A trusted expert witness and active figure in the sector, including roles with The Academy of Experts and the South West Fraud Forum, she recently joined Opus, a national advisory firm with 14 offices, 35 Partners, and specialist divisions spanning restructuring, strategic advisory, forensic accounting, and equity.

Lawyers spend a good deal of time discussing timetables for disclosure, witness evidence and expert reports but it seems that sometimes they forget that a failure to raise expert issues at the right time can have serious consequences.

For example, expert evidence about signatures is commonly needed for inheritance disputes but in Lynch v Murphy in the Irish High Court a claim was dismissed, in part, because the expert report that was claimed to exist had not been served.   In Huang & Wang v Credit Suisse the claimant’s application for summary judgement was not accompanied by any expert reports, despite the validity of signatures being key to the case. The judge described the claimant’s attitude as “an oddity I am unable to fathom” and refused their application.

While these are extreme cases a more common occurrence is for addition expert evidence and complaints to be introduced as the legal process goes on, sometimes in supplemental reports, in submissions and even in the witness box. In Nicholas & Ors v Thomas & Anor, a case about falcons rather than ducks, in which one neighbour accused the other of harassing them and causing such as nuisance as to cause a high mortality rate in their falconry business.

The defence expert was heavily criticised by the claimant’s counsel not least for producing a supplementary report during the trial. As the judge said this criticism  was not well-founded because the report was responding to new evidence introduced by the claimant the day before the trial started. Having finished all cross-examinations the claimant’s closing submissions then invited the judge “to act upon suggested errors in Dr Forbes’s response to ROP’s Summary which had not occurred to them before he left the witness box. “ Unsurprisingly the judge was not especially impressed by this approach.

The eventual outcome  was that only  8 out of 34 allegations were proven  with a value  of £300k out of £1M originally claimed, which rather suggests that a more orderly approach to the expert evidence who have been more cost-effective for all parties.

The moral of all these cases is that if expert evidence is needed then it should be obtained as soon as possible and cover all of the technical issues that need to be covered. If you’ve need an expert in a hurry, whether for ducks or falcons, then TAE’s ExpertSearch can help. Our register of accredited experts is easily searchable or you can contact TAE and we’ll do our best to help.

Given how  often lawyers and experts complain about encountering hired guns in litigation it sometimes seems that every other expert must be crossing the line from independent, objective opinion into full-blown bias and advocacy for their client.

In reality our adversarial system means that any expert other than a Single Joint Expert will spend a good deal more time with their own client and legal team than the opposition . Your legal team will typically be more interested in picking holes in the other side’s arguments and expert reports than checking that your report is 100% objective so it’s easy to slide, almost unconsciously, into positions that favour your side.

Judges understand this to some extent and  as long as the bias is not too extreme may confine themselves to a wry comment. For example, “Both experts on occasions were over-optimistic in favour of the party who instructed them.” and “both experts at times had seemed, at least in their reports, to have adopted a rather more critically rigorous approach to assessing the quantum of the other parties’ claims than when reviewing their own client’s.”

But expert evidence is very important to the courts and experts are rightly held to very high standards, so a good starting point to is to try to avoid even such mild criticism. The simplest way to do this is to read your own report  as though you were the other side’s expert. Are there gaps in your reasoning? Is there evidence  that might contradict your conclusions? If you’ve discounted witness evidence or documents, why have you done that? Is it justified?  Have you set too high or too low a standard for professional conduct in your analysis?

The key question is does this report help the judge to understand the case and form a truly objective view of the expert issues. Then when you arrive in court you will be confident that your report will stand up to even the most difficult cross-examination.  In a recent case, for example,  a valuation expert who the judge considered to be unquestionably an impressive expert was subjected to trial by ambush while giving evidence. Fortunately his expertise and independence mean that when “presented with new material while in the course of giving evidence; he engaged with the new figures presented to him and was able to offer clear, comprehensive answers to the questions put

By contrast in a clinical negligence case an expert had based all her opinions and written her report entirely based on fact that was not stated in a witness statement and had been completely undermined during the trial. The judge commented that she found this very concerning, “as it appeared to me that the expert was:

i) holding firmly to an opinion which was based on one perceived fact which she elicited from the Second Defendant’s witness statement (that he had the diagnosed pyelonephritis in mind at the index consultation, albeit that his witness statement was clear at the start that he had no recollection of the Claimant at all), even when the basis of that perceived fact had been fatally undermined;

ii) trespassing on the judicial function to find, and rely on as a fact (or as her belief) that he was considering pyelonephritis in the index consultation; and

iii) seeking to advocate on behalf of the Second Defendant, thus undermining her own independence. “

 

Unsurprisingly the other expert’s evidence was preferred, something that  could easily have been avoided by a careful and considered review of the report and the evidence by the expert and her client’s legal team.

 

The Academy’s Judicial Committee publishes the authoritative guidance for experts so you can be sure that you are adopting best practice. This includes for example the Model Form of Expert’s Report and Guidance Notes on Meetings of Experts, Contingency Fees & Remote Evidence. We also provide practical advice and guidance on topics such as GDPR, Joint Statements, privilege and so on which is available at no charge to members in the Academy’s Knowledge Hub.

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Goldilocks expert reports?  A recent write up on reports in a non-expert context (https://freshspectrum.com/goldilocks/) suggested that there’s no such thing and that authors should create different reports for different audiences. But an expert is only allowed to produce one report so how can that best be achieved?

A report that’s too brief is unlikely to help and in extreme cases such as Jukic v BBC Anor [2025] https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2025/221.html , where an expert report was said to exist but like the claimant (and MacAvity perhaps, simply ‘wasn’t there’ judges have no choices but to make do without expert opinion.

In a complex Australian case (ASIC v Money3 Loans [2025] http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FCA/2025/75.html ) involving consumer lending practise where the judge remarked that “It takes a good deal of persistence to read the Expert Report, which obviously I have.”  an experts report was challenged despite its length for lacking a clear factual matrix supporting the opinions it contained. The report was admitted but a more concise but properly underpinned report might well have saved time and cost.

Clearly too short and too long can both be problematic, but a recent judgement highlights what judges really need. In a sad case involving the treatment of an individual in custody there were two eminent and experienced experts involved but their evidence focused on different aspects of the case. One centred on the individual’s previous mental health history and treatment whereas the other focused on how they had presented to the police and others while under their supervision. Ultimately the issue the judge had to decide was whether they should have been treated differently in custody and their presentation at the time was what mattered, so  an expert analysis of their pervious history was of little or no help to the court.

Dobson v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police [2025]

https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/KB/2025/272.html

All of which highlights the need for experts to focus on the issues the court has been asked to decide. For more help on writing expert reports TAE provides regular training courses and a Model Form of Report aimed at helping experts do just that.

https://academyofexperts.org/practising-as-expert/model-form-of-report/#page_content