Rule committee consults on regulation of experts in children cases
It is not unusual for a court considering a children case to direct that an expert, such as a psychologist, be instructed to assist the court in coming to its decision. And whilst the court is not obliged to follow any advice given by the expert, the expert’s opinion is obviously likely to have a significant bearing upon the outcome of the case.
It is therefore of course essential that the person instructed is truly an expert in their field, fully qualified to deal with the matter and provide evidence upon which the court can rely.
The issue of the qualification of experts used in children proceedings, and the standard of their evidence, has been raised on a number of occasions in recent years, with concerns being raised in particular over the use of ‘experts’ who are not regulated, for example by a professional body.
The matter came to a head in a case in 2023, which involved allegations of parental alienation. The court had instructed an unregulated psychologist to undertake an assessment of the family. The psychologist concluded that the children had been alienated against their father by their mother. The court followed that conclusion, and made an order that the children be removed from the mother and live with the father.
The mother appealed, claiming that the court was wrong to instruct an unregulated expert. The appeal was heard by the President of the Family Division. He dismissed the appeal, but did highlight the “need for due rigour” in the process of instructing an expert.
The matter has now been considered by the Family Procedure Rule Committee, which makes rules of court that govern the practice and procedure followed in family proceedings. The Committee is now proposing that there be a requirement that any expert instructed in family law children proceedings must be regulated and adhere to the standards set by their governing body.
The proposed rule change would still allow the court to instruct an unregulated expert where no regulated expert is available, but if it does then it must give reasons for its decision.
The Committee believes that these changes “will improve the consistency of the standard of expert evidence presented to the court.” It has launched a public consultation on the changes, seeking the views of anyone with an interest in the matter. The consultation runs until the 6th of June.
You can find the consultation here.
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