Do You Need an Expert Report
Sometimes you will need an expert to provide a valuation or advice about something such as:
The value of a business or company shares
The value of a property
How to share pension funds to equalise incomes in retirement
The court can order an expert’s report. You are not meant to get your own reports without the court agreeing. In most cases the court will want a single joint expert.
The court will only order a report if it thinks it is necessary to have a report.
There’s an explanation of what this means in the President of the Family Division’s Memorandum on Experts in the Family Court (2021).
What is a single joint expert?
The courts prefer one expert over each party having separate experts. That person is a single joint expert (SJE) because they are instructed to prepare their report by both parties acting jointly. The expert will be given a letter of instruction telling them what to do. The letter must be agreed by both parties or a judge. SJEs will charge for their work.
A single joint expert’s first duty is to help the court. This duty overrides any duty to the parties. It’s not like American tv where there are rival experts who seem biased. Here, the expert’s role is to give impartial expert evidence to the court.
The rules that an expert must follow are set out in Part 25 Family Procedure Rules. Make sure you read this carefully so you know what to do.
Agreeing the SJE’s identity
You will need to write to the other party before the first hearing. You will need to say that you want a chartered surveyor’s report/pensions on divorce report/business valuation.
Then, copying the other party in, you will need to contact your proposed surveyor and ask them
If they can do the valuation for the court
That you need the court’s permission for that, so this is just an initial enquiry
How much they would charge
How long it will take
Details of their qualifications and experience in doing this type of work.
You need to make it clear that this would be a formal court-ordered valuation with a letter of instruction setting out that their obligation is to the court.
Give them the names and contact details of both parties and make sure they know they have to communicate with all parties simultaneously.
Do not have a private conversation with a proposed SJE. Any communication should be copied to the other party, which generally means you need to communicate by email. If you can’t find an email address on their website ring up and ask for an email address but don’t get into the above discussion by phone. Leave that for email.
You might need to contact three experts to create a choice for the other party.
Who pays for an expert’s report
A single joint expert is normally paid jointly with each of you paying half the fee. It may be sensible if one of you is short of available cash to agree that one of you will pay the whole fee initially (even though the instruction is joint) and they get refunded half from the final settlement. Unless you have a practical way of addressing payment of the fee, the report won’t get done.
Applying to court for appointment of an expert
If the other party doesn’t agree that there should be an SJE report, you will need to file form D11 before the first hearing along with the proposed letter of instruction and a draft order (the wording for an order is below). The court will then deal with your application for an SJE report at the first hearing. The court will only order an expert report if it thinks one is necessary to resolve the case. You will therefore need to make sure your application explains why a valuation is ‘necessary’ rather than just a good idea.
Draft letter of instruction
Expert cv and information about what they’ve said about cost and timescales
Draft letter of instruction
When we have more time we will upload template letters and orders you can use. However, you will need legal advice to help you with these because there are different ways to value things and the letter needs to be accurate as to the way that is most appropriate for your situation.