Expert reports fail for predictable reasons. They answer four of the six questions in the letter of instruction. They assert a conclusion without showing the reasoning that produced it. They carry a chronology that does not match the disclosed records. They use a form of declaration that was superseded three years ago. None of these are failures of medicine. They are failures of drafting.
How a report is produced
The clinical opinion, formed independently
The checklist governs the form of a report, not the substance of the opinion in it.
I review the records, examine the claimant where required, and form my opinion on the questions you have asked — breach of duty, causation, condition, prognosis, or whichever combination your instruction calls for.
That opinion is formed independently, on the records and on my own examination of the claimant where one is carried out, in accordance with my overriding duty to the court under CPR 35.3.
The checklist
What the review actually checks
Every item below is a check on form, completeness and consistency — none of it touches the substance of the clinical opinion.
- Every question in the letter of instruction has been answered
- Each answer can be located, without reading the whole document
- Where a question cannot be answered on the available material, that is stated, with the reason and what would be needed
- Anything outside my expertise is identified as such rather than attempted
- The statement of the expert’s duty to the court is present and in current form
- The declaration and statement of truth are correct, complete and current
- The substance of all material instructions is stated
- The CV appended meets the PD35 requirement
- Literature and other material relied on is identified
- Where a range of opinion exists, it is summarised, with reasons for my own view within it
- Every date, procedure and finding in the chronology is checked against the disclosed records
- Page references are given and are correct
- Records that were requested but not received are listed
- The summary, the body and the conclusions say the same thing
- No conclusion appears that is not supported by reasoning earlier in the report
- No reasoning is left dangling without a conclusion drawn from it
- Clinical terminology is explained in plain English at first use
- The document is paginated, numbered by paragraph, and formatted to go into a bundle without being retyped