Complying with the 20 page expert report rules

On 1^st October, new rules came into effect that required that expert reports for civil claims in England and Wales should be limited to just 20 pages in the intermediate track. This is covered under Rule 14(3)(c) of CPR 28 which states “any expert report shall not exceed 20 pages, excluding any necessary photographs, plans and academic or technical articles attached to the report.”

For many experts, this may make it difficult for the effective, clear and full communication of their opinions. These changes relate only to those claims which fall within the intermediate track, that is anything with a value between £25,000 and £100,000, there are no limitations on page limit for cases on other tracks. It also refers only to those claims that are issued after the 1^st October. 

The implications of this new limit

For any expert who is instructed under a claim on the intermediate track this will have implications for the report that they produce. The new 20 page limit means that there is a need to provide the appropriate expertise within this limit without compromising on the quality of that report. In those instances where the expert believes this is not possible, it is important to contact the instructing party and give full reasoning. This might be because of the area of expertise, the complexity of the facts or certain issues that arise within the expertise. Extensions to page limits will not always be granted so it is wise to consider how best to write reports that fit within the shorter boundaries. 

This has all been done with the idea of producing reports that are more accessible, user-friendly and with brevity as the key. 

How to cut your report length

With that in mind here are some tips for making sure your reports are “less wordy” that will ensure that the reports you present are more succinct. 

1. Sentences that begin with phrases like “it has been reported that” or “there is a previous study on” should have a reference citation, which means you actually only need the citation, so use that.
2. If your sentence contains product names then you can reduce your word count by moving the product name within parentheses.
3. When it comes to being over wordy nominalisations, the use of noun forms instead of verb forms are a huge contributor. For example, consider using “diagnosed” instead of “ a diagnosis of”.
4. In a results section rather than stating individual values for groups and then following this with the values place the values in parentheses at the end. For example: The difference between groups A and B was significant (value 1 vs value 2). 
5. Basic information that should be obvious to a target audience can be deleted. This is often found in your introduction. Establishing context is important but very obvious information can come across as patronising to an intelligent audience. 
6. Find typical wordy phrases and replace them with less wordy choices. For example:

• Several to replace a number of 
• Therefore to replace as a result 
• Whereas to replace on the other hand 
• Owing to to replace as a consequence of 

1. Elliptical construction. This is something in English grammar that allows for repeated verbs in a sentence to be eliminated. For example, if discussing a number of groups being given a trial drug you only need to use “was given” for the first group. 
2. Hyphenated words take up a little less room so opt for these where possible. For example, “rely on themselves” could be replaced with “self-reliant”. 
3. The active voice rather than the passive voice can in some sentence constructions help to reduce word count. 
4. Avoid those possessive constructions that are formed using “of”. For example “individuals of group 1” could be replaced with “group 1 individuals”. 

And remember, in the words of Mark Twain, ‘I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.’ Writing shorter reports is a learning curve that will take time to master. 

If you would like further assistance with your medico-legal ventures, please contact me.