Expert Witness Report - Instructions
posted 23rd September 2026
Can a solicitor instruct a professional witness report or does it have to come from the court. Or is it only a joint witness report that needs to be instructed by both solicitors acting for the parties defendants and plaintiffs.
Assuming this is a civil case in England and Wales, a solicitor can instruct an expert witness directly. The instruction does not have to originate from the court.
The important distinction is between obtaining a report and relying on it in court:
• A solicitor may instruct an expert before proceedings, during the pre-action stage, or after proceedings begin.
• Once proceedings are underway, a party generally needs the court’s permission to submit the report as expert evidence or call the expert at trial. This is required by CPR 35.4.
• The expert’s overriding duty is to assist the court independently—not to advocate for the party or solicitor paying them.
• The report must comply with CPR Part 35 and Practice Direction 35, including the required declaration and statement of truth. Practice Direction 35
There are two different “joint” arrangements that are often confused:
1. Single joint expert
One expert is instructed on behalf of both claimant and defendant. This may be agreed between the parties or directed by the court. Both parties normally participate in selecting and instructing the expert, and instructions sent by either party must also be copied to the other. The court can decide who should act if the parties cannot agree.
2. Experts’ joint statement
Each party has its own separately instructed expert. The court may then direct those experts to meet or discuss the issues and produce a joint statement identifying what they agree and disagree about. This statement is prepared and signed by the experts themselves; they do not need the parties’ permission to express their professional conclusions.
Therefore, it is not correct that every professional or expert report must be jointly instructed. Each solicitor can ordinarily instruct their own expert, subject to any court order and the need for permission to rely on the evidence. Only a single joint expert is instructed for both sides.
If the proposed witness is merely reporting facts they personally observed, rather than giving specialist opinions, they may instead be a professional factual witness. Different rules can then apply, depending on the evidence’s substance rather than the witness’s job title.
Incidentally, the usual terms in England and Wales are claimant and defendant, rather than plaintiff and defendant. This is general information; the particular court order and track allocation should be checked before an expert is formally instructed.
