For professionals › Common questions for solicitors › Medical experts

Medical experts and expert evidence: common questions

For solicitors and law firms. How our Expert Directory will work, what we plan to check about an expert, and an expert’s duty to the court in each part of the UK. The directory is being designed, and no experts are listed yet.

Looking for support for yourself? Our Support Directory lists helplines and organisations you can contact directly.

The rules on this page come from the Civil Procedure Rules, the Family Procedure Rules, the UK Supreme Court and the judiciary in Northern Ireland. The CICA and redress facts come from GOV.UK and the Church of England. We last checked them on 6 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.

The Expert Directory

What is the Expert Directory?

It will list medical experts who work on abuse claims, with exactly what we checked about each one. The Expert Directory is being designed, and no experts are listed yet. See the Expert Directory.

What will an expert’s listing show?

Every listing will show the expert’s own professional contact details and exactly what we checked.

Which specialties will it cover?

The planned specialties are:

Mental health: psychiatry, clinical psychology, neuropsychology, and psychotherapy and counselling.
Children and young people: child and adolescent psychiatry, and paediatrics.
Physical health: general practice, gynaecology and sexual health, orthopaedics, plastic surgery and scarring, and neurology.

Will you arrange an expert or a report for us?

No. The directory will show each expert’s own professional contact details, and you contact the expert yourself. Experts never pay us for cases or instructions.

Do you suggest which expert to use?

No. “Verified” will mean only that we checked an expert by hand and accepted them. It will not be a quality rating, and it won’t tell anyone who to choose.

What we plan to check

How does an expert get listed?

Through expert membership, which is for medical experts who write reports in abuse claims. Members will appear in our Expert Directory. Expert membership is being designed and is not open yet. Read about membership.

What will you check before listing an expert?

The checklist for medical experts is being decided. It is planned to cover who the expert is, their contact details and any connection to us; that the expert is registered with the regulator for their profession, as shown on its public record; and that the listing describes their own field.

Independence

What are the duties of an expert witness?

An expert’s job is to help the court, not to take a side. In civil claims in England and Wales, the Civil Procedure Rules say: “It is the duty of experts to help the court on matters within their expertise. This duty overrides any obligation to the person from whom experts have received instructions or by whom they are paid.” (Part 35, rule 35.3). The Family Procedure Rules say the same for family proceedings in England and Wales (rule 25.3).

Scotland. Experts are traditionally called skilled witnesses. The UK Supreme Court has referred to “the recognised duties of a skilled witness to be independent and impartial”, and said a report that on its face does not comply with them may be excluded as inadmissible (Kennedy v Cordia (Services) LLP [2016] UKSC 6, paragraph 51).

Northern Ireland. The judiciary’s guidance for the instruction of experts in civil claims in the High Court says experts have “an overriding duty to help the court on matters within their expertise”, which “overrides any obligation to the person instructing or paying them” (paragraph 6).

How will you protect an expert’s independence?

Expert membership is being designed to respect an expert’s duty to the court. Experts never pay us for cases or instructions, and a listing won’t tell anyone who to choose.

On our pages for survivors, we ask anyone who has a solicitor to speak to them before contacting an expert themselves.

Will a listing say if an expert is connected to you?

Yes. The checklist is planned to include any connection to Abuse Support Network, and a listing will say so.

Can a listed expert also take instructions from defendants?

Yes. The Expert Directory will list experts whichever side instructs them. An expert’s duty to the court is the same whoever instructs or pays them.

Medical evidence: what we tell survivors

What do you tell survivors about medical experts?

Our page Seeing a medical expert: what to expect explains that a claim for compensation for harm to someone’s health may need evidence about how they have been affected, and that a medical expert gives that evidence in a written report. It sets out the expert’s duty to the court in each part of the UK, explains a single joint expert, and says that, in England and Wales, the report is addressed to the court and the other side may read what they said.

If a survivor has a solicitor, we ask them to speak to their solicitor before contacting an expert themselves. Their solicitor can tell them whether their claim needs a medical report, and how one would be arranged. The page also suggests questions they can ask their solicitor, such as why the expert was chosen and who will see the report.

What do you tell survivors about medical evidence for a CICA claim?

We tell survivors that the scheme can cover mental injuries. A ‘disabling mental injury’ makes it much harder to do the things a person would normally do, such as working, studying, seeing friends or having a relationship. It must last at least 6 weeks and be diagnosed by a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist.

CICA tells the applicant if it needs medical evidence. The applicant may have to pay their GP or another medical professional for it; if that costs more than £50, CICA will refund the extra. If they cannot afford it, they can ask CICA for help. They will not have to pay for any further evidence that CICA asks for.

CICA covers crimes in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own scheme. Read our CICA guide.

What have you checked about medical assessments in redress schemes?

The Church of England says that, under its national redress scheme, some eligible applicants will be asked to agree to an assessment with a trained consultant psychiatrist. They will be given the choice of two experts from a pool of professionals, and can choose their preference in relation to gender.

The scheme is not open yet, and its rules are awaiting approval by Parliament. Our redress guide says whether it is open.

Where this information comes from

Checked on 6 October 2026. Rules can change, so always check the official sources before you rely on them.

Expert membership is not open yet. Our membership page explains how it is planned to work.

Read about membership