Expert Witness

Mike is an expert witness and complies with Part 19 of the Criminal Procedure Rules, Part 25 of the Family Procedure Rules and Part 35 of the Civil Procedure Rules.

Mike can offer to review Toxicology and Drugs casework for prosecution teams, advise on further forensic possibilities and write statements with more detailed interpretations using case information as supplied.

Likewise he can review prosecution casework for Defence teams, either remotely or via site visits to Forensic Science Providers, and write statements for use in court.

Areas of civil casework which benefit from his expertise include :-

    • Child protection
    • Death investigations
    • Injury compensation/insurance claims

Criminal Toxicology

This area of work covers a very wide range of offences from murder, rape, including drink-spiking and drug injection (so-called ‘date-rape’), poisonings, consumer terrorism and investigation of suspicious deaths, amongst others. Use of a toxicology expert witness can assist in trial preparation or challenge weaknesses in the case. This can lead to significant financial and time savings for the Criminal Justice System.

Road Traffic Offences

Prosecution of drug or alcohol-related offences under the Road Traffic Act, for example driving with excess alcohol, driving with a drug concentration in excess of the prescribed limit and driving whilst impaired through drink or drugs, is not always as straightforward as it might seem.

With many pieces of case law, numerous issues with analytical procedures under S5A of the Road Traffic Act and inherent problems such as the actual process for prosecuting a motorist for driving whilst impaired through drugs, the use of a forensic toxicologist can highlight issues at an early stage prior to the case getting to court and save the Criminal Justice System both time and money.

If potential issues are addressed by an expert witness early in the process, cases may either proceed at court more smoothly or be dropped if the evidence is found to be lacking.

Drug Offences

Many cases which were initially charged as ‘possession with intent to supply’ are challenged as being ‘possession only’ with the defendant claiming that drugs seized were for their own use only. What amount of drug is for personal use only? Obviously this is not an easy question to answer and each case will have its own set of unique circumstances to be taken into account. If addressed by an expert witness prior to court attendance time and money can be saved.

Cases for which Mike has written statements  include cannabis, MDMA, ketamine, GHB and GBL. A case involving the seizure of a large amount of benzocaine resulted in a guilty plea the day before trial thereby saving court attendance for several police officers.

Such statements can also be useful in ‘Newton’ hearings to assist the judiciary in determining an appropriate sentence.