Expert Witness

Expert WitnessWe provide you with impartial expert opinion backed up where required by incisive courtroom skills.

JFL is widely recognised as an authority on legal issues pertaining to trees and is a highly experienced Expert Witness at Public Inquiry and in the civil and criminal courts.

He is probably the UK’s leading planning witness for arboriculture, including development in Ancient Woodland.

Our two Associate Directors, Ben Abbatt and Patrick Stileman, are also accomplished planning and civil Expert Witnesses.

Expert services include:

Chambers we work with regularly include:


Click here to download a copy of JFL’s paper
: ‘Liability for death or injury caused by falling trees or branches: A review of the present position under English law’, published in the Arboricultural Journal, December 2009.

Testimonials on JFL as an Expert Witness received from clients, lawyers & Judges:

“A highly intelligent and articulate witness” (Opposition QC)

“JFL’s report was excellent: helpful, informative, superbly presented and exactly the right length” (High Court Judge)

“Despite sustained cross-examination from a senior QC no blows were landed” (Client’s QC)

“Their cross-examination strategy collapsed as soon as JFL started speaking: he had the jury from the off. In the end, only one of their three barristers wanted to have a go, the others just wanted him to shut up” (Counsel for the Crown)

“Simply masterful under cross-examination” (Planning Counsel)

“The excellence of JFL’s evidence goes without saying. I was hugely impressed” (Planning Counsel)

“We thought we had a bomb-proof case until we asked JFL to look at it. He found holes in it we’d never realised were there, and advised us to settle. Thank God we didn’t get to court” (Head of Local Authority Legal Department)

 “Probably the best prepared expert I’ve ever worked with” (Client’s QC)

 References from Solicitors and Counsel are available on request.

Please contact us if we can be of any assistance.