Cases - Rawlinson v Westbrook

Record details

Name

Rawlinson v Westbrook

Date

(1995)

Citation

CA TLR 25

Keywords

Expert witness

Summary

In this pre-CPR case the Court of Appeal criticised the fact that the Rules of the Supreme Court did not let judges and masters refuse expert evidence to be given at trial of an action. The judge was able to limit the number of experts, but not exclude such evidence altogether.

Judges and masters were:

'frequently forced to observe the spectacle of litigants like lemmings rushing to their own doom by engaging too many and unnecessary experts ... every litigant thought, or at least his solicitor did, that he had to have at least one expert called to give evidence for him'.

In this case, involving a dispute over fees for professional services:

'There had been no need for any expert evidence to be called at all: both the parties were chartered surveyors who could have given the relevant evidence themselves'. The result was that the taxed costs of the hearing before the judge were 'totally absurd'.