My mum has been asked by a claimant’s solicitor to provide an expert witness report for an injury claim.

Retired GP, now does specialist private pyscotherapy.

What should she charge – I suggested a figure of £200 based on my insurance knowledge but I deal with commercial insurance and not personal injury type stuff so is this way over or way under for such a report?

Cheers

Danny B

£200 sounds quite cheap.

In another life we billed by the hour depending on how long it took to produce the report.

As she’ll probably need to make sure that she is also carrying PI, I’d think that something like £120/hr would be minimum. I thought that being an expert witness opened you up to all sorts of painful future liabilities.

http://bma.org.uk/practical-support-at-work/pay-fees-allowances/fees/fee-finder/fee-finder-medico-legal/who-pays-medico-legal-fees

The CPS rates for reports to criminal proceedings are a little way down this. BMA may be able to advise further on the sort of report you’re talking about.

I think the NHS fee for a working GP to produce a report for insurers is still around the £100 mark, but I think your mother could probably claim an additional specialist knowledge and a higher fee as a result.

£100-200 an hour for preparation of the report is unlikely to raise any eyebrows.

Top end if her expertise is more specialised, bottom end if not.

MRO Agency rates for a sub 90 day payment are £200+vat, and £225 + vat if invoice is over 90 days. Add £50 + vat if a review of the medical notes is required.

Most insurers will pay to say £300 for a GP report without raising too many eyebrows.

Is she aware of the needs of a report, ie a Statement of Truth appended to the end, ect?

Oh, and as a claimants expert, she will be expected by the solicitor to rubberstamp the lies of the compensation seeker fairly unquestioningly. My view of the average GP report writer is that they are a pretty dishonest bunch, who only exist to agree unchallengingly the claimants oral testimony no matter how unlikely. They tend to take literally a few minutes per claimant, see dozens in a day, with virtual identikit reports and prognosis made using the cut and paste tool.

And as the reports are “for the court” they are hard to challenge, and it’s these bent GP’s who are as much responsible for maintaining the high level of unlikely whiplash claims as the claims farmers/solicitors who put them forward. If there was ever any chance a GP would “disagree” a claimants injuries, leading to the odd costs award against the solicitors, then the world would be a more honest place and your premiums would all be lower.

No lies on this one.

Horrible crash – can’t go in to too much detail suffice to say the claimant lost a close family member in the same crash.

This is not a tap on the rear bumper leading to a £5k whiplash claim…

EDIT: and this is my Mum who you are accusing of being a lying cheating scumbag of a GP which I can assure you she most certainly is not!

Oh, and as a claimants expert, she will be expected by the solicitor to rubberstamp the lies of the compensation seeker fairly unquestioningly.

Isn’t that just how an adversary legal system works?

Oh, and as a claimants expert, she will be expected by the solicitor to rubberstamp the lies of the compensation seeker fairly unquestioningly.

You might want to choose your words more carefully. This is the OP’s mum and secondly, she works in psychotherapy, suggesting the claimant has probably suffered more than a bit of whiplash.

she will be expected by the solicitor to rubberstamp the lies of the compensation seeker fairly unquestioningly

It may sound a bit harsh but IME it’s what used to happen in the industry I was involved in.

One personal injury claim I was involved with was definitely partly the claimants fault, however, we just ripped their written and accident investigation procedures apart. Made them look like a bunch of mugs and they settled out of court for a very favorable sum.

It may sound a bit harsh but IME it’s what used to happen in the industry I was involved in.

I’m aware that it does happen, but suggesting it in this thread does feel like its questioning the integrity/ethics of the OP’s mum a little bit.

I could ask a mate if you like – he’s a consultant forensic psychiatrist and does a lot of private work