Role of psychologists as expert witnesses in family proceedings
- 2.1 As set out in Psychologists as Expert Witnesses: Best Practice Guidelines for Psychologists (BPS, 2021):‘An expert is a person who, through specialist training, study, or experience, is able to provide a court, tribunal, or hearing with relevant scientifc, technical, or professional information or opinion, based on skills, expertise, or knowledge, that is likely to be beyond the experience and knowledge of the representing lawyers, judge, jury or panel.3’Psychologist experts may be instructed in the family courts only where ‘necessary’ to resolve a case justly. Changes in the way the court can instruct experts were refected in the Family Procedure Rules introduced on 31 January 2013 and later enshrined in legislation with the Children and Families Act that came into force in April 2014.
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