Ruaraidh Adams – Surveying Expert Witness – Lawyer Monthly | Legal News Magazine

Ruaraidh Adams – Surveying Expert Witness

An entrepreneurial spirit, an awareness of presentation and a deep understanding of specialist property sectors is what make our next guest a formidable expert witness in his field. Ruaraidh AdamsCairns BSc (Est Man) FRICS is a director of Savills and head of Litigation Support for the firm. Here he talks to Lawyer Monthly about the role of a chartered surveying expert witness, the challenges and rewards therein, and about the range of processes involved in assisting in dispute resolution.

“Savills plc is a global real estate services provider listed on the London Stock Exchange. We have an international network of more than 700 offices and associates throughout the Americas, the UK, continental Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, offering a broad range of specialist advisory, management and transactional services to clients all over the world.”

“In the UK we have a pool of over 125 surveyors trained and regularly acting as experts but in all probability we could find and train an expert for almost any type of property in any part of the country. We also have a research department which researches our three main markets commercial, residential and agricultural in many cases on a local basis which can be seen to add to our credibility.”

 

What kind of legal cases are you commonly appointed for and what principal issues do these present?

We probably produce more expert witness reports acting as Single Joint Experts in matrimonial cases than in any other. The demand for these reports has grown massively over the last 10 years but in the 6 years following a recession (such as 1988/89 and 2007/8) this was exceeded by cases involving professional negligence. In the main these have now worked their way through the system but matters such as covenants, rights of way, dilapidations, and easements including rights to light help provide a reasonably continuous source of work combined with boundary and development disputes. To a certain extent all professionals are consistently negligent so even in a rising market we still see some professional negligence cases such as structural surveys, issues missed or miss-reported during conveyancing and building matters.

 

Do the difficulties differ when instructed on commercial property based cases as opposed to residential surveying cases?

Whilst the type of properties may be dramatically different the fundamentals of arriving at a considered opinion for quantum are the same. This normally relies on good comparable evidence but finding this, years after the event when records and memories are poor is often far from straight forward. It can take as long to carefully research a transaction which turns out to be irrelevant as one which is ideal but when you start the exercise you usually have no idea which is which!

 

As a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, what is your secondary remit as an expert witness, after your responsibility to the court?

The two are totally aligned in as much as the Institution publishes a mandatory Practice Statement which must be followed by RICS members. They spell out surveyors obligations in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules and also give guidance for example on the form of instructions, content of expert reports and meetings between experts.

 

In cases of professional negligence, what actions can be taken towards the chartered surveying team and what does the expert witnesses’ role involve?

We see a wide variety of cases involving professional negligence. The key task for the expert witness valuer is to try and put him or her self in the shoes of the practitioner at that time. Whilst obviously the benefit of hindsight must be put to one side SURVEYING it is also important to remember that professional standards and operational procedures have also changed. When I started practicing over 35 years ago a valuation report might be no more than 3 or 4 paragraphs! Today, setting out the instructions alone might take up more space than this!

 

How would you say the role of an expert witness chartered surveyor has evolved over the past 20 years?

I think the biggest change has been with regards to fees. 20 years ago it was adequate simply to quote hourly fees. Today one is almost always asked for a quote. These can be difficult to estimate accurately. One is often asked to give a view before the papers are delivered and it is always easy to underestimate the time which will ultimately be involved, especially if the papers turn out to be extensive or there is a need for a lot of research.

 

Is there any legislative change you believe could facilitate the work of chartered surveyors acting as experts?

The biggest problem with expert witnesses is that they inevitably become entrenched in their initial opinion. In reality the correct opinion is likely to fall within a range and if the bottom line is based on a number of earlier opinions this range can be very wide.

If experts met before exchange of reports and were able to agree the nature of the instructions and the evidence (for example the comparables to be relied upon) then I would expect reports to be shorter and the likelihood of agreement at an earlier point in the exercise higher.

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