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For the first time the Court of Appeal has considered the duties of an expert concurrently engaged in two potentially conflicting disputes. While
Secretariat Consulting Pte Ltd v A Company involved an unusual set of circumstances, it provides an interesting review of the duties owed by expert witnesses to their clients and the court and highlights important considerations for those engaging expert witnesses and drafting engagement letters.(1)
Facts
Secretariat Consulting Pte Ltd (SCL) provides expert litigation and arbitration support services to the construction industry. Based in Singapore, it is an entity within a larger group. SCL was approached by the solicitors of an organisation involved in a dispute to provide arbitration support and expert services in an arbitration (Arbitration 1) on delay and disruption. SCL ran a conflict check across all entities in the group and confirmed that it was clear. A confidentiality agreement was signed.
The obligations of an expert services provider to avoid a conflict with its client’s interests should be assessed by reference to the expert’s retainer and not (as was held at first.
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This alert considers two recent English court judgments providing important guidance impacting expert evidence, first as regards conflicts of interest and, second, as regards the risks of an award being challenged for serious irregularity upon a misapplication by the tribunal of a model agreed between quantum experts for assessing damages.
FIRST CASE: COURT OF APPEAL RULES ON CONFLICTS OF INTEREST FOR EXPERTS
The first case we consider is the important decision of the English Court of Appeal in (1)
Secretariat Consulting Pte Ltd, (2)
Secretariat International UK Ltd, (3)
Secretariat Advisors LLC v A Company [2021] EWCA Civ 6. In this case, the Court of Appeal ruled that Secretariat, an international expert services practice, breached a contractual duty to avoid conflicts of interest when it accepted appointments from different parties in related arbitrations. The issues in the case were novel: this was the first
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Recent Development in Expert Evidence: The English Court Provides Guidance on Experts Conflicts of Interests and Highlights the Potential Pitfalls int he Use of Financial Damages Models Tuesday, January 26, 2021
This alert considers two recent English court judgments providing important guidance impacting expert evidence, first as regards conflicts of interest and, second, as regards the risks of an award being challenged for serious irregularity upon a misapplication by the tribunal of a model agreed between quantum experts for assessing damages.
First Case: Court of Appeal Rules on Conflicts of Interest for Experts
The first case we consider is the important decision of the English Court of Appeal in (1)