28/02/10 (UK):
Nice Work? Expert Witness's Fees Top £200,000
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A headmistress claimed £200,000 for appearing as an expert witness for a school being sued by a pupil left brain-damaged in a hammer attack by classmates. Marie Stubbs, whose career was dramatised in a film starring Julie Walters, charged the fee for writing a 30-page report assessing the school's health and safety policies and for a three-day court appearance.
Henry Webster, now 18, was left for dead with a fractured skull on a tennis court at the Ridgeway school in Wroughton, near Swindon in Wiltshire, three years ago, after being repeatedly beaten with the claw end of a hammer.
The bloody attack by an Asian gang, condemned as racist, was described by a lawyer as "like something out of a Quentin Tarantino film".
Four pupils and a further nine youths summoned from outside the school to beat Webster were convicted for their part in the assault, with Wasif Khan, then 18, who wielded the hammer, sentenced to eight years in prison in 2008.
Webster had been hoping to win £1m compensation from the school for its failure to protect him from the unprovoked attack by strangers who had entered school premises.
Earlier this month, however, he was told his civil claim had failed because the judge found no evidence the school could have foreseen the attack or prevented it.
Now his family has been told their insurance will not cover the costs of the six-week court case, which, including Stubbs's fee, will top £800,000.
Stubbs's fee has yet to be formally approved at a costs hearing. It has highlighted the anomalies of the expert witness industry, which has seen a growing queue of professionals giving opinions in court proceedings. There is no limit to the fees that can be claimed and no requirement for experts to be vetted or trained.
Stubbs, 71, has won acclaim for her inspirational teaching of inner-city children. She is credited with reviving the fortunes of St George's school in Maida Vale, west London, where the headmaster, Philip Lawrence, was stabbed to death in 1995.
Ahead of the Class, her book describing her stint as head teacher there in 2000-01, became the subject of a television drama broadcast on the 10th anniversary of Lawrence's death.
Last week, Stubbs said the payment had been negotiated by her agent without her knowledge, but she maintained that the preparation for the trial had taken the best part of a year's work.
"I must sound a bit naive, but I leave all that stuff to my agent. I just tell her the time I spend on things," she said. "It was a huge, huge job. I am not a lawyer and I did sweat over it. There was all the reading of documents and researching, and to distil all that into something that is completely readable is a formidable task."
Gus John, the expert witness recruited on behalf of the Websters, produced a 374-page report and charged about £70,000 for his time. John, author of Taking a Stand and an adviser on combating racism in schools, was similarly untrained as an expert witness. He could not be contacted for comment.
John and Stubbs were criticised by the trial judge, Mr Justice Nicol. His judgment said he was "not greatly assisted" by either of them; neither had any experience of giving evidence in High Court proceedings and did not understand they were meant to help with information outside the court's general knowledge, not merely act as extra advocates for the party calling them.
New proposals for reforms to civil court procedures, drawn up by Lord Justice Jackson, call for better controls of costs and the use of experts. According to Jackson, they should be trained in giving evidence and their fees should be agreed by both sides in legal disputes ahead of court proceedings.
Webster's mother, Elizabeth, from Wroughton, said she had thought long and hard about whether to pursue a negligence claim against the school, but was swayed by the evidence that her brain-damaged son would have reduced earning power as an adult, as well as her desire to see the school staff called to account for their failure to prevent the brutal attack.
"The school never wanted a proper investigation of the background to what happened and this was the only way of getting it," she said.
"If I knew then what I know now, I would never have done it. We have had to revisit the horror of it every day during the hearing and now we are paying an extremely heavy price for trying to take on the system."
Gordon Brown has agreed to meet Elizabeth Webster next month to discuss her concerns about schools' responsibilities for the protection of pupils.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said Jackson's report was a "useful contribution to the debate", which the government would consider.
With Thanks, © The Times 2010
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