Steven Docker Associates (SDA) are one of the country’s leading disabled adaption firms and specialise as accommodation experts in personal injury and clinical negligence litigation.

The practice has long-established, highly successful departments dealing with:

• Accommodation needs reports.
• Property finding (inc. feasibility assessments and acquisitions).
• Architectural services (inc. project management).
• Surveying.

Over 40 years’ experience in designing homes for severely disabled individuals throughout the United Kingdom and overseas provides us with the hands-on, practical experience necessary to provide the courts with accurate and impartial reports in cases of clinical negligence and personal injury claims.

Solicitors instructing SDA and barristers who recommend the practice consider our litigation reports to be unparalleled in providing reliable expert evidence. We regularly receive instructions from solicitors representing claimants and defendants. We also act on joint instructions and instructions to act as shadow experts.

All members of our expert witness department have secured the Certificate of Expert Witness Accreditation from Cardiff University Law School.

We have prepared expert witness reports in cases involving:

• Road traffic accidents.
• Accidents at work.
• Clinical negligence.
• Military injuries.
• Illness claims inc asbestos-related lung cancer and other diseases.
• Accidents and illnesses abroad.
• Criminal injuries compensation claims.
• Serious civil and criminal fraud cases involving negligent mortgage valuations.
• Professional negligence.
• Court of protection work.

The opinions expressed by SDA expert witnesses is always impartial, unbiased and objective. Our duty is to be of maximum independent assistance to the court. When producing expert witness reports to assist the court in matters of our expertise, that duty overrides any obligation to those instructing us or their clients.

We are a founding member of the EWI and always comply with the requirements set out in part 35 of the Civil Procedure Rules and the accompanying practice direction; the protocol for the instruction of experts to give evidence in civil claims; and the Practice Direction for Pre-Action Conduct. All reports are prepared in accordance with the code of practice for experts.

Reports prepared for the court comply with the requirements of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, as expressed in its guide to best practice entitled “Surveyors Acting as Expert Witnesses”.