The Supremes Perform The Follies

In one of the most oppressive and devastatingly stupid judicial decisions of all time, the Supreme Court has abolished the immunity previously enjoyed by expert witnesses.

Just try raising that 'no win, no fee' medical negligence case now. When your experts can be sued by persons to whom they owe no duty, you'll be on to plums before you start. I wouldn't even think about acting even as a non-expert witness in any civil case, if it can possibly be avoided. The nature of this judgement is such that immunity will be removed from non-expert witnesses in short order, and the risk of personal litigation against oneself for being a good citizen will merely discourage good citizenship.

This will also open the door to every potential defendant or defender suing their plaintiff or pursuer for libel or defamation, thus eroding the availability of remedies for those who use the courts. Verdicts and judgements will become meaningless, and process will become endless; and when process becomes endless, it rapidly becomes pointless.

At just what point did our judges go nuts? And where is Shami Chakrabarti when you need her, to speak out against this? She might have repeated the same disappearing act during the recent unpleasantness about Saif Gaddafi and the LSE that she performed when Jon Venables's civil liberties were being abused by the yellow British press, but you would think she would have something to say about such a monstrous restriction on access to justice as this.