Experts in Arbitration and Adjudication

By Dr. Robert Gaitskell Q.C., Keating Chambers¹

Originally presented to the Arbrix Construction Group, Saturday 15^th

1.1 Expert witnesses assist the courts and various other tribunals in a variety of contexts, including criminal trials, civil and family hearings, planning tribunals, copyright disputes, as well as in the more familiar areas of construction and engineering hearings before Technology and Construction Court (TCC) Judges, and construction industry arbitrators and adjudicators.

1.2 In these various fora experts have an important role to play. In 2002 the Court of Appeal Judge, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, writing about expert medical witnesses, described them as "a crucial resource. Without them we [the Judges] could not do our job". This importance of the expert witness function applies equally in the construction engineering field, where, save for a few cases which depend upon, say, the interpretation of the contract, disputes