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Supreme court ruling on experts’ Immunity in court proceedings

The Supreme Court judgment last week in the case of Jones v Kaney [2011], has removed the immunity of expert witnesses from civil actions being brought against them as a result of the evidence that they give in court cases.

In the past, expert witnesses have been protected from actions brought against them by their clients for breach of their professional duties owed to them, so that they would not be inhibited from performing their overriding duty to the court. However, the Court in Jones v Kaney did not think that such an argument was convincing grounds for upholding the immunity and stated that lifting it would serve to improve standards in the provision of expert evidence.

Expert witnesses will now only be immune from libel claims in relation to their evidence. Other types of witness will however, retain their general immunity from legal claims in respect of their evidence.

However, the judgment was not unanimous and two of the Judges disagreed, raising the issues of vexatious claims being brought by aggressive clients who blame their witnesses for losing their cases and the lack of reliable evidence on the possible effects of such a change.