What is the tool?
Providing expert assistance to courts and tribunals requires professionals to achieve and maintain high standards of ethical and professional practice.
Although judges sometimes include criticism of experts in judgments, positive feedback is less common and, in many cases, experts receive no feedback at all, including in the Family Court where a practice direction requires it.
‘Multisource Assessment of Expert Practice’ (MAEP) is a system that can be used by any expert, whatever their professional discipline, for anonymously obtaining and collating feedback (and comparing their performance with that of other experts who have registered for MAEP).
The feedback can be used to guide professional development and learning, such as a personal development plan or programme of continuous professional development, and shared with a peer group so as to support professional and personal development.
For medical experts it can be submitted as evidence at the annual appraisal which informs the responsible officer’s recommendation to the General Medical Council as to the doctor’s revalidation and relicensing. It has the same potential application for other professionals who are subject to appraisal systems.
An expert may choose to disclose the results to potential instructing lawyers if they ask for evidence as to the expert’s competence. The mere fact of being registered for, and using, MAEP can indicate to potential instructing lawyers or their clients how seriously the expert takes their responsibility to monitor their expert witness practice. Likewise, bodies concerned with the education, training, registration or certification of experts may ask to see applicants’ or members’ MAEP feedback as part of their admission, registration or certification processes or at least have regard to the fact of the expert’s registration for MAEP.
