In recent years there has been growing concern about the development of a class of technical Experts in the Courts. That class comprised those who were adept at giving evidence, on almost any subject, rather than particularly experience in the segment of specialisation that was relevant.

HH Judge John Loyd, in his talk to the Branch two or three years ago voiced such concerns, and the Official Referees in particular find that both the competence and the usefulness of Experts somewhat lacking.

Complaints of Experts trying to argue the case (or the point); inability to express themselves, whether on the technical evidence or their opinion of them were and still are common. It was to address these shortcomings that the British Academy of Experts was set up. It was said that, once it had got going, they (the Experts) would have the judges eating out of their hand and arbitration would be virtually extinct.

That is where the future of dispute resolution lay. It has not worked out quite like that. One should not carp at the educational work of the BAE; clearly that is a GOOD THING.

But there are two other tasks in an Expert's job which are in danger of being overlooked. One is the initial, priveleged advice to the party and its legal advisers. It is the solicitors who want, perhaps need, Experts in the first place. The second task is to agree with the other Experts what is common ground and what they do not agree; a job more often performed notionally than well.

At one such meeting, one Expert started his contribution by saying that he was going to win the case for his client! He did. The Judgment could not be faulted on questions of law, but clearly, the County Court Judge was not very well informed about the behaviour or design of buildings. One could not but feel that the dispute could have been resolved better by an arbitrator who was a building professional.

That is but one case, but it instances the somewhat worrying emergence of a culture of the Professional Expert. Such a culture, surely, cannot be good for either litigation or arbitration. On 8th November, BBC Radio 3 reported that an Expert Witness' Institute was being formed. Little detail was included, but if such an institute is formed, it can only promote the culture of the Professional Expert.

Judge John Loyd, in his talk to us told of a case in the OR's Court about infringement of copyright of a Fairisle knitting pattern. No OR with sufficient expertise in knitting techniques could be found, so the Court did the sensible thing; they sought an expert to sit with the OR as an assessor. The Expert-Assessor was a lady from the Western Highlands who had spend a large part of her life knitting Fairisle garments. And it was her first time in a court of law.