Do the common law rules/principles relating to Expert Evidence (as formulated eg by Cresswell J in ‘the Ikarian Reefer’ (1993) *) apply to medical opinion evidence presented to Mental Health Tribunals?
Either way, what Upper Tribunal or Court judgments provide guidance on how the First Tier Tribunal should approach the opinion evidence given by medical professionals?
In Scotland, the Handbook The Scottish Mental Health Tribunal : Practice and Procedure (2009) by Derek Auchie and Ailsa Carmichael distinguishes between eyewitness/factual evidence and opinion evidence (aka expert/skilled witness evidence) and suggests that medical evidence should comply with the common law rules relating to opinion evidence. However I can find no tribunal or court decision in Scotland or England & Wales which discusses this issue. The issue was raised by me in the Third Ground of my appeal to the Court of Session in January 2015 but the treatment is unsatisfactory (in my opinion!) and has not been cited in any other case AFAIK.
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National Justice Cia Naviera SA v. Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd (The Ikarian Reefer) [1993] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 68, 81- 82; [1993] F.S.R. 563; [1993] 37 E.G. 158; Times, March 5, 1993) : National Justice Compania Naviera SA v. Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd. (The "Ikarian Reefer")
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Principles in the Ikarian Reefer case as stated on the Expert Witness Institute website : Ikarian Reefer