EXPERT WITNESS: Assisting the court

Expert witnesses and witnesses of fact

Summary:

Diana Kloss explains the important role that OH professionals may play in court proceedings, either as ‘witnesses of fact’ or ‘expert witnesses’.   

Occupational health (OH) professionals frequently become involved, even if indirectly, with court or tribunal proceedings. Most commonly this will be as witnesses of fact; that is they will have reported, usually to an employer, on an interaction they have had with a worker that has become relevant to legal proceedings. They may be involved in a discrimination case that ends up in an employment tribunal, or in a civil action for damages for negligently inflicted personal injury in the County Court or High Court, or even in a criminal prosecution of an employer who allegedly failed to do that which was reasonably practicable to protect an employee against damage to their health and safety, for example through exposure to a substance hazardous to health…

Prof Diana Kloss is a barrister, former part-time employment judge, and author.  

Author: Kloss D

Tags case law law

Occupational Health at Work August/September 2024 (vol. 21/2) pp36-38

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