Single Joint Expert (SJE)
Definition
An expert appointed by a court or agreed by both parties to provide a single neutral opinion rather than one expert per side. Common in civil proceedings in England and Wales under CPR Part 35 and in some Australian family law matters.
- Jurisdiction
- UK civil procedure (CPR Part 35 civil cases)
- Core benefit
- Reduces adversarial distortion of expert opinion
- Common use
- Lower-value civil matters
Common questions
What's the main difference between a single joint expert and the traditional model?+
With a single joint expert, one expert is appointed by the court or both parties together and produces a single report that both sides rely on. In the traditional model, each party hires their own expert. The single joint expert approach reduces adversarial distortion and is common in UK civil cases, especially lower-value matters under CPR Part 35.
Who appoints a single joint expert?+
Either the court directs the appointment, or both parties agree to appoint one jointly. Either way, the expert serves both sides rather than working for a single party.
When is a single joint expert used?+
It's common in UK civil proceedings, particularly in CPR Part 35 cases of lower value. It's chosen when the parties want a shared factual foundation rather than competing expert opinions.
Related terms
- BSA 2023 § 39
- Section 39 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023, the provision governing expert opinion evidence in Indian courts. Replaced Indian Evidence Act 1872...
- BSA 2023 § 63
- The electronic record admissibility provision (replacing IEA § 65B), requiring a certificate from a person in a responsible official position confirming the...
- Concurrent Evidence
- Also called 'hot-tubbing': a procedure, common in Australian courts and used experimentally in England, where opposing experts give evidence simultaneously, respond to...
- Conflict of Interest
- A situation in which a person's private interests, financial, personal, or professional, could improperly affect their exercise of a duty to an...
- CrimPR Part 19
- Criminal Procedure Rules Part 19 (England and Wales): the expert-witness procedural code requiring disclosure of qualifications, methodology, limitations, and whether the method...
- Daubert Standard
- The US federal evidentiary standard (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 1993) requiring that expert testimony be based on scientifically valid methods with...
- Duty to the Court
- The obligation of expert witnesses in UK proceedings (and, to varying degrees, in other jurisdictions) to assist the court with objective, unbiased...
- Expert Witness
- A person whose specialised knowledge is accepted by a court and who gives opinion evidence, not just factual evidence. Forensic auditors frequently...
- Frye Standard
- The US legal test for admissibility of scientific evidence, originating from Frye v. United States (1923), which required that a technique be...
- Hot-Tubbing
- Concurrent evidence procedure in which opposing experts give evidence together, often debating their technical disagreements in front of the tribunal. Used to...
- Instructions
- The written brief given to the expert that defines the questions they are asked to address, the materials they are given, and...
- Likelihood Ratio (LR)
- The ratio of two conditional probabilities: the probability of the observed evidence given the prosecution's hypothesis (same source), divided by the probability...
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