10 Dec 2025
What has changed in the medico legal market throughout 2025?
The medico legal sector continued to evolve significantly throughout 2025, and for legal professionals who depend on clear, independent and defensible medical evidence, these developments have shaped both practical processes and the expectations placed on experts and providers alike.
With new legislation coming into force, influential judgments clarifying long standing principles and a renewed emphasis on expert accountability, this year has prompted many firms to rethink how they source, assess and instruct medical professionals, particularly in complex and high value claims where scrutiny is at its highest.
In fact, throughout 2025, several important changes have stood out, each contributing to a shifting landscape that legal teams must navigate with care, diligence and an unwavering focus on quality.
Below, we explore what those changes are, and how they impact the wider medico legal market.
Greater clarity following key court decisions
One of the most significant developments has been the continued impact of the Court’s approach to expert evidence, particularly where questions of methodology, impartiality and admissibility have come under renewed scrutiny.
Several recent decisions have reaffirmed that experts must provide evidence that is transparent, logically structured and clearly anchored in recognised clinical or technical principles, including Tarrant v Monkhouse (2025), whereby the Court highlighted the need for experts to demonstrate a full understanding of the legal framework within which they operate and to articulate their reasoning in a way that allows the Court to follow each step of their analysis. Likewise, in MW & Another v Wilkinson & Another (2025), the Court was clear that where an expert’s approach lacks rigour, fails to address competing evidence or strays from their duty of independence, those shortcomings will be openly criticised.
These recent decisions illustrate a consistent judicial message across 2025 that expert evidence must be thorough, impartial and well-reasoned, with a clear explanation of how conclusions have been reached and how the expert has engaged with the key points in dispute.
Looking ahead to 2026, this emphasis on clarity, credibility and methodological robustness is expected to remain central, making the process of selecting the right expert, and ensuring they are fully equipped to meet these expectations, more important than ever.
Important legislative and regulatory developments
Legislative change also shaped the medico legal market throughout 2025, particularly with the ongoing implementation of the Fixed Recoverable Costs regime which came into effect in October 2023 and continued to embed throughout 2024 and 2025.
These reforms prompted firms to reassess the efficiency and cost effectiveness of their medical reporting processes, as predictable and proportionate recoverable costs mean that delays, late reports or unsuitable expert selection have an even greater financial impact than before.
As such, the changes throughout 2025 strengthened requirements around accreditation, data quality and the monitoring of report standards, leading many firms to place a greater emphasis on consistent compliance and governance when working with suppliers.
As well as this, ongoing updates from the General Medical Council promote refreshed guidance relating to Good Medical Practice which took full effect in early 2025, reinforced expectations around expert impartiality, clarity of communication and the avoidance of conflicts of interest.
These regulatory shifts have heightened the need for medico legal providers to maintain robust vetting, continuous performance management and transparent quality assurance processes.
Stronger demand for multi specialist collaboration
With the complexity of clinical negligence and serious injury claims continuing to rise, 2025 also saw a marked increase in the need for multi specialist assessments, particularly where long-term prognoses, psychiatric impact or complex causation questions were involved.
Here, the market saw rehabilitation pathways become broader and more integrated, and as a result, many legal teams have sought experts who can address overlapping conditions or who can collaborate effectively with other clinical professionals.
The trend has been informed by ongoing NHS England updates relating to major trauma and rehabilitation planning, which have encouraged a more holistic approach to long term recovery, and the shift has also meant that legal teams are more attentive to an experts experience, not only in their individual field but also in coordinated reporting, joint statements and the ability to engage constructively during case conferences also.
Rising expectations around transparency, governance and timeliness
Another key development throughout 2025 has been a growing expectation from courts, insurers and instructing parties for greater transparency within the medico legal process, including clearer documentation, more robust evidence of compliance, stronger audit trails and greater assurance that experts are appropriately trained, accredited where applicable and operating within recognised professional guidelines.
Much of this discussion has been driven by the wider debate around the fact that expert witnesses are not formally regulated, which has led to increased scrutiny over how competence, consistency and ethical standards are maintained.
These expectations also reflect the broader move across the legal profession to embrace accountability and data driven oversight, though timeliness continues to be a major focus, particularly in the context of Fixed Recoverable Costs and the increased volume of cases progressing through digital or hybrid court processes.
Because of this, delays in medical evidence now have more pronounced consequences than ever, meaning that both experts and providers are under sustained pressure to meet deadlines without compromising quality.
How Speed Medical supports legal teams in this evolving landscape
With so many changes taking place throughout 2025, it’s understandable that many paralegals, fee earners and case handlers have found themselves needing additional support to navigate this increasingly demanding environment.
This is where our team at Speed Medical can help, by delivering a service that reflects the expectations of modern medico legal practice where every expert is carefully vetted, monitored and supported, and every report is managed with precision from instruction to delivery.
Our expert matching process ensures that each case is assessed individually, with specialists selected according to clinical relevance, experience, qualifications and availability, and our national panel allows us to source professionals across every major discipline with consistency and confidence.
But that’s not all.
Our quality assurance framework also includes ongoing audits, performance monitoring, training verification and continuous improvement, all of which ensure that our experts remain aligned with the standards set by the General Medical Council, MedCo, the Civil Procedure Rules and the wider requirements of the court.
This meticulous governance, combined with industry leading turnaround times and dedicated case management, allows legal teams to progress claims efficiently, without unnecessary delay or administrative pressure.
After all, choosing the right medico legal provider shouldn’t simply be about meeting process requirements, it should be about confidence, reliability and the assurance that every report has been prepared with independence, precision and full compliance with the expectations of the modern legal system.
To find out more, speak to our expert team today by visiting www.speedmedical.com, contacting our team via email at info@speedmedical.com or calling us directly on 0330 094 8749.
