Expert witness services

We are able to:

• Act as expert witnesses in employment tribunals or other cases in which a dyslexic person is involved as either plaintiff or defendant.
• Give advice to employers on their legal obligations, and to dyslexic people on their legal rights.
• Advise legal professionals on guidelines for accommodations which should be made for dyslexic people in court, as specified in the Judge’s Equal Treatment Bench Book.
• Coach dyslexic people who will be appearing in court, either as plaintiffs, defendants or witnesses.
• Provide dyslexic people with support in various ways as they move through legal proceedings. This might include accompanying dyslexic people to meetings and court hearings, providing support with reading court documents.

Useful resources

‘Dyslexia: Good Practice in Courts and Tribunals. Jameson Guidelines’

Good Practice Guide for Justice Professionals.

Guidelines for supporting users of the Justice System who have Dyslexia and other Specific Learning Difficulties. By M Jameson & the BDA 2009

This Guide presents the challenges arising out of Specific Learning Difficulties in justice settings and outlines good practice in accommodating them. There is an emphasis on interview situations such as court, tribunal or parole hearings and police custody.

The Guide is available as a hard copy @ £10 from DANDA (the umbrella group for adults with SpLDs) contact: info@danda.org.uk.

The Equal Treatment Bench Book

The Equal Treatment Bench Book has been updated to include guidance on specific learning difficulties. The guidance is intended to help judges recognise such difficulties, identify their implications in a court setting and understand what should be done to compensate for areas of disadvantage without prejudicing other parties.

See: SECTION 5.5. ‘Specific Learning Difficulties’

The following quotation is taken from Section 5.5.

Disability or Difference?

Fair treatment involves taking account of differences. This is a helpful starting point. The social model of disability sees certain situations as giving rise to a disability, such as a building with steps when one is wheelchair user. In a similar way, aspects of court procedures can cause difficulty to someone with Specific Learning Difficulties because of short-term memory problems and a limited attention span. It is therefore appropriate to make reasonable adjustments to offset the effects of a disability in compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Implications for the courts

Court hearings make heavy demands on language skills – both receptive and expressive – and require an ability to process information reasonably quickly and efficiently. Reliable memory, sequencing abilities and concentration are also necessary. All these areas fall within the profiles associated with Specific Learning Difficulties.

The impact of specific learning difficulties in a court setting

The following problem areas have been reported by people with Specific Learning Difficulties who have experience of court or tribunal proceedings:

• a build up of stress, due to long delays at the hearing
• impossibility of following the cut and thrust of court exchanges
• difficulty coping with oblique, implied and compound questions
• difficulties giving accurate answers relating to dates, times or place names
• problems providing consistent information on sequences of actions
• inability to find the place in a mass of documentation, as directed
• coping with a room full of strangers in unfamiliar settings
• maintaining concentration and focus
• an experience of sensory overload from the lights, bustle and distractions.

In addition, concerns were expressed about how their behaviour might be perceived: inconsistencies would imply untruthfulness; failure to grasp the point of a question could come across as evasive; lack of eye contact could be mis-interpreted as being ‘shifty’ and an over-loud voice might be regarded as aggressive. The overriding worry was that a loss of credibility would occur when they did not ‘perform’ as expected.