Expert witness: Clough v Tameside and Glossop Health Authority (24 July 1997) High Court, Queen's Bench Division

This was a medical negligence case but is of interest in relation to environment related cases due to the importance of expert evidence in such cases.

Tameside and Glossop Health Authority obtained a report from a consultant psychiatrist as to what injuries, if any, Ms Clough had suffered as a result of the alleged negligence. In preparation of his report, the consultant psychiatrist used a report prepared by the senior house officer who had treated Ms Clough, which had been disclosed to him by the Tameside and Glossop Health Authority. Tameside and Glossop Health Authority then disclosed the psychiatrist's report, which recited the receipt of the senior house officers report, to Ms Clough with the intention of relying on it in court. Ms Clough applied for disclosure of the senior house officer's report as being necessary for the fair disposal of the case under Order 24 of the Rules of the Supreme Court. The District Judge ordered disclosure of the document. Tameside and Glossop Health Authority appealed to the High Court, contending that the document was privileged as it had been prepared for the purpose of litigation. The service of the expert psychiatrist's report did not waive privilege in connected documents. This was only waived when the senior house officer's report was itself put in evidence at trial. The High Court held that where an expert in his report referred in passing to material supplied by the instructing solicitor as part of the background documentation in the case on which his expert opinion was sought, any privilege attaching to that material was waived by the service of that report on the other side. Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed. ([1998] 2 All ER 971)