Lawyer Monthly Magazine - July 2019 Edition

there are times when more focus is required. This depends very much on the occupation for, as employment experts, we have to be all things to all people, reporting on every conceivable occupation, some of which are straightforward for e.g., a carpenter, whereas others are not as straightforward such as an investment banker. A carpenter is unlikely to progress through their career other than perhaps to supervise if working on 1st fix on a building site.. An investment banker on the other hand requires forensic investigation due to the complexity of the space within which they work and the size of potential earnings, often counted in the millions per year. It also depends on the instructions and evidence received. I am occasionally asked whether I would write the same report on behalf of the claimant as I would for the defendant and the answer is yes, in an ideal world. However, a solicitor may send limited evidence and the expert will not know if there is more. In my experience, it also the case a claimant can respond differently depending for whom the expert is acting. Simply put, when acting for the claimant the expert may be perceived as friendly and thus the claimant is disposed to open up more, whereas when acting for the defendant, the claimant may clam up to the expert or not provide the fullest detail. Therefore, the possibility that a report would differ in its conclusions always exists. This does not imply partiality, but absent information has the potential for distortion. However, were it to be a jointly instructed report where the parties agree to the evidence to be given to the expert, added to which the claimant knows the expert is acting for both, it is inevitable the report would be as it is intended, fully informed and completely impartial. All cases of people who have suffered injury are sad and my colleagues and I have experienced moments of deep reflection upon returning home following a particularly stressful interview. However, we have not only an overriding duty to the court, but to our instructing solicitors and, not least, the claimant to report impartially and independently, no matter how sympathetic we may feel. Other challenges are generally a matter of investigation and thank goodness for the internet, which was not available when I first started. I had to rely on published documents and contacts who might point me in the right direction. Life is so much easier now as I cannot think of anything I haven’t searched for and not found the answer or signpost to where I wanted to be. The primary challenge is continuing to attract and retain business. It is a matter of fact experts rely on solicitors to instruct them and it is difficult to come to terms, in a commercial sense, why a favoured client for whom you have delivered consistently good work for a number of years instructs another expert, even though as a practice/individual we are accepted on to their preferred supplier list. However, clients and experts both recognise the importance of being independent and working against a client of long standing has its own benefits in that an expert cannot and should not be seen as a claimant or defendant only expert. Alongside your work as an Expert, you have raised awareness of discrimination against the disabled by employers and helped pave the way for new employment legislation; can you share more about this? What impact has this had? When I was President of the Institute of Employment Consultants I created, personally funded, launched and coordinated a campaign, Priority 2000, to encourage employment agencies to place just one disabled person a year each. I was delighted that at the end of the campaign over 1,700 people with disabilities had moved into employment. As a result of this initiative I became an ad hoc adviser to the Conservative Government of the time on issues surrounding disabled people and worked closely with Alistair Burt, Minister for Disabled. My campaigning and initiatives greatly raised awareness of discrimination towards the disabled by employers and helped pave the way for new employment legislation including amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, which was replaced by the Equality Act 2010. It was for this initiative that I received the OBE and the British Citizen’s Award in 2016. LM Trevor Gilbert OBE is the Chairman of the epony- mous Trevor Gilbert & Asso- ciates, widely regarded as the UK’s leading employ- ment expert witness prac- tice. He has been involved in recruitment since 1972 through his consultancy, The TRG Group, and has practiced as an expert for 30 years. This year Trevor’s practice was short-listed for the Queen’s Award for Enter- prise, although ultimately unsuccessful it was never- theless an achievement in itself, and he is nomi- nated for the Shaw Trust’s 100 most influential people with a disability/impair- ment in the UK. Trevor Gilbert Chairman Trevor Gilbert & Associates employmentexperts.co.uk TREVOR GILBERT CONTACT JUL 2019 59 Expert Witness www. lawyer-monthly .com