Expert Immunity and the Accountability of Forensic Scientists

A series of important decisions by superior courts in the United Kingdom and Australia has determined that the principle of witness immunity extends substantial protection to expert report-writers and witnesses against civil actions for defamation and negligence. It also appears that those organisations which might otherwise be vicariously liable for such conduct are protected. However, other forms of accountability, including by regulators, are not included within the parameters of witness immunity. This has meant that disciplinary bodies have increasingly often intruded into the domain of the forensic expert insisting as a criterion for licensure and registration that the forms of objectivity, even-handedness and methodological soundness expected of practitioners in their ordinary work are mandatory also for forensic work. The repercussions of these expectations and accountability are explored in relation to forensic science.