02 December 2016 02 Dec 2016

Of embellished memories and the expertise of experts

A recent High Court case (Watts v The Secretary of State for Health [2016]) has raised a number of issues, including the reliance that can be put on a claimant's accounts of the events in question, and the expertise of expert witnesses. The case concerned a baby born in 1993 with a right-sided Erb's palsy caused, it was claimed, by excessive traction on the head or neck when shoulder dystocia arose.