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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Hannah Al-Othman and Jessica Murray

Politicians, lawyers and doctors express concern over use of expert witnesses in English courts

Lady Justice statue in London on top of the Old Bailey
Expert witnesses often come across as being ‘hired guns’, Dominic Grieve, a former justice secretary, said. Photograph: georgeclerk/Getty Images/iStockphoto

A lack of regulation over the use of expert witnesses in English courts could be leading to miscarriages of justice, senior politicians, lawyers and doctors have said.

The former attorney general Dominic Grieve and the former justice secretary Jack Straw were among those to tell the Guardian that criminal and civil trials were sometimes hanging on evidence by self-appointed “experts” who could lack relevant knowledge.

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