Expert witness work – is it stressful?

Expert witness work is perhaps, in a way, a little bit like being an anaesthetist – or a pilot. 95% of the time it feels quite calm and like you’re fully in control. But every now and again…

There are aspects of this work that certainly mean the some of the issues we might find stressful about clinical dentistry aren’t ever really a problem. First and foremost – there is no patient to please. No people turning up 20 minutes late for a 30 minute appointment and demanding to be seen. No tears when you reach for the local anaesthetic. No reviewing your amazing work one year later, only to see it inexplicably failing. We’ve all been there.

In contrast, the vast majority of expert witness work is done from home. To some, this might feel slightly off-putting as they love that buzz of working as a team and the development of a dentist-patient relationship. Personally I like the mix throughout the week, but I definitely enjoy the serenity of working from home. The lack of a commute, having music I enjoy on in the background, and the flexibility to manage my day as I want is – to me – far less stressful than a day full of patients.

However, I never forget just how important the work of an expert witness is and what a significant responsibility we have to the dental and legal professions. You will be asked to give an opinion regarding the standard of work performed by a fellow dentist, and this is sometimes not easy. You must develop the ability to be critical of the work of a dentist (where appropriate, of course) in a professional, reasoned, and unbiased way – but you will still have to be critical. Sometimes you will get a sense through the written records about how difficult a patient has been to treat and to manage and sympathise with the dentist who has treated them, yet still have to conclude that in your opinion their treatment was not good enough and that you support the allegations against them.

If a case progresses then you might find that you are instructed to attend a “conference with counsel” – i.e. an online (usually) meeting where a highly intelligent barrister will go through your report and test how robust your opinions are. These are – in my experience – very friendly, respectful, and professional, but you might possibly feel as though your opinions are being scrutinised a little more than you’re comfortable with. And if you’re lucky/unlucky enough, you might even make an appearance in court to defend your opinions under cross-examination from another highly intelligent barrister – but this time one who is working for the other side..! (Cases progressing to this stage is fortunately extremely rare, but you must be aware that with every single case that it is a possibility).

In summary, in comparison to clinical dentistry I believe that most dentists would find the role of being an expert witness far less stressful but this will vary from person to person. It will also depend – to a large degree – on the quality of your initial reports for a case and how well you have considered all the facts and opinions that are relevant to the claim. You will almost certainly make life harder for yourself if this is not done properly from the outset, as later scrutiny by your solicitors, barristers, other expert witnesses and possibly even a court judge could expose gaps weaknesses in the contents of your written reports. This is why it is absolutely essential to undertake appropriate training for expert witness work, and at The Dental Expert Witness Course we will cover everything you need to know to keep life as stress-free as possible.