What price justice? Experts or treating clinicians? LB Islington v Al Alas and Wray

Jo Delahunty QC
4 Paper Buildings

Kate Purkiss
Coram Chambers

In their article, Jo Delahunty QC and Kate Purkiss, who represented Chana Al Alas in the care proceedings in which she and the father were exonerated from having caused the death of their son, explore the obstacles to and then the difficulties surrounding the instruction of experts in cases concerning the TRIAD of injuries (subdural haematoma, encephalopathy and retinal haemorrhages) and question the extent to which it is ever appropriate to rely upon the evidence of treating clinicians in such cases. This issue is likely to be one of huge importance to practitioners with the proposed Family Justice Modernisation Programme aiming to reduce further the need for expert evidence. (See also, 'The vitamin D and rickets case: LB Islington v Al Alas and Wray in June [2012] Fam Law 659 by Jo Delahunty QC and Kate Purkiss.)

To read the rest of this article, see July [2012] Family Law journal.

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