THE QUERY PROJECT - European Commission - Europa

Co u n t R y R E P o R t S
ITAI has two levels of membership: Affiliate, which is open to
anyone with an interest in accident investigation but which is not
a qualification, and full Member, for which an applicant has to give
evidence of a suitable background of education and experience
(including two years as an Affiliate), two sponsors, two case files
(chosen by the applicant), a record of “Continuing Professional
Development” (CPD) (which means attendance on courses, at
conferences, private study etc., of which only 18 hours/year are
currently required), and a 2500 word essay about their two case
files and what they learnt from doing them. Full Membership
does not expire, but Members may send their CPD records to
ITAI each year, for which their names are placed on a list on the
ITAI website. They then become entitled to use a special badge
on their reports:
ITAI has about 500 Affiliates and about 250 Members, of whom
49 have CPD listing. All Members can put the letters MITAI after
their names. Membership costs £52 (approx. 75 €) a year.
ITAI also holds a large conference every two years and occasional
smaller meetings and crash test events. Members particularly
exchange views on the RTA Investigators forum e, although
this is not officially sponsored by ITAI.
British professionals love to have a string of letters after their
names: if I choose to I can write MA DPhil CSci CPhys MInstP MITAI
MSAE after mine! But membership of an professional engineering
or scientific association, such as the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institute of Physics,
is important to university educated AR experts, since it brings with
it the labels of Chartered Engineer (CEng) or Chartered Scientist
(CSci), and these are generally guarantees of good technical, if
not practical, ability.
Accident Reconstruction Training
There are no university degrees or diplomas in AR. The police
are trained either by their own training establishments or by a
private company, AiTS f , with certification being granted by a
body called the City & Guilds of London Institute g . The academic
standard of these courses is not very high, covering only a very
basic knowledge of dynamics, but they do emphasise practical
AR skills. AiTS also runs a slightly more demanding course which
extends the City & Guilds syllabus, and which is certified by De
Montfort University h .
Experts in Court
Several months before a trial in a civil case, the parties have to
obtain a judge’s permission to use expert evidence. The judge’s
concern is to limit the costs of a case, both in its preparation and
of the trial. He may be asked to allow more than one expert on
each side (for example, an AR expert and a metallurgical expert).
If he agrees (and he does not always), he will set a timetable
giving dates when each side must disclose their experts’ reports
to the other side. He will also require the experts to then have
a private meeting (without lawyers) at which they discuss their
reports and from which they must prepare a joint report setting
out their agreements and disagreements. This joint report may
clarify things sufficiently to remove the need for the experts to
attend the trial.
But in smaller civil cases the judge may order that there be a
“single joint expert”, who advises all the parties in the case. The
judge does not choose the expert: the parties have to find and
agree on the expert themselves. This is a relatively new procedure
in English law, and does not sit well with the adversarial trial system:
the hope is that there will be no need for the expert to go to
the trial, but when he does, whose witness is he?
In criminal cases the use of experts is freer. The judge does
not limit it beforehand, and the only restrictions are that the
prosecution must disclose their expert evidence well before the
trial, whereas the defence need only do so a short time before.
But each side’s experts can make additional reports in response to
what the other’s has said. There is no rule that experts must meet
privately before a trial, but sometimes a judge will ask for it to be
done – and sometimes during the course of the trial itself!
There are no official fee rates for the payment of experts,
although when a litigant is publicly funded by the Legal Services
Commission they will set a maximum total amount which they will
pay (usually not enough). Experts state their fees in advance, and
the client either accepts them or does not. With many experts it is a
matter of pride to set a high rate – say £120 or 170 € an hour – but
when they make up their bill, they will often reduce the number
of hours (unless they are attending court, when the client can see
for himself the number of hours which have been worked – this
makes going to court quite lucrative for some!).
a for example, www.burgoynes.com and www.rbhawkins.com
b for example, www.trl.co.uk, www.fss.org.uk and www.forensicalliance.
org.uk
c www.crfp.org.uk
d www.itai.org
e RTA_Investigators@yahoogroups.com
f www.aitsuk.com
g www.city-and-guilds.co.uk
h www.dmu.ac.uk