French and UK experts collaborate on standards

Expert witnesses in the UK have agreed to work with their French counterparts to create a single set of professional standards throughout Europe.

The UK Academy of Experts has signed a declaration of intent with the National Federation of Companies of Judicial Experts of France.

The declaration, signed at the end of last month, invites European organisations to work together to achieve a single set of standards, system of reference and set methods of operation. Representatives from Belgium, Germany and Italy have already expressed an interest in joining talks aimed at achieving single standards.

Academy chairman, barrister Michael Cohen, said the declaration "serves to illustrate the increasing recognition of the significant role played by experts throughout European judicial systems".

Cohen added: "A single cross-European set of standards would revolutionise the practice of experts and, by definition, the practice of lawyers using those experts."

The 10-year-old Academy of Experts, whose president is Lord Howe, the former Con-servative Chancellor, is a professional society and qualifying body, which provides independent experts in commercial, professional and industrial disciplines.