ALLDOQ is proud to be a sponsor of Ireland's Expert Witness Conference 2026, held on 20 May at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel on Golden Lane in Dublin. Run by La Touche Training, it is one of the few events that puts judges, barristers, solicitors and expert witnesses from every discipline in the same room to talk plainly about what makes expert evidence credible.

We work with expert witnesses and the firms that instruct them every day, so the themes of this year's programme are the themes of our product: methodology, independence, sourcing, and the standards that hold up under cross-examination. Sponsoring the conference is a way of supporting the community ALLDOQ is built for.

What is Ireland's Expert Witness Conference 2026?

It is a full day of practical sessions and panel discussions for anyone who gives or relies on expert evidence in the Irish courts. The day is chaired by The Honourable Mr Justice Michael Peart, with a keynote from The Honourable Mr Justice David Barniville, President of the High Court. Solicitors who attend earn five legal CPD hours.

The audience is deliberately mixed: experienced and aspiring expert witnesses across medicine, engineering, accountancy and technical fields, alongside solicitors, barristers and in-house counsel. That mix is the point. Much of the friction in expert evidence happens at the boundary between the expert and the lawyer, and the conference is built to work through it.

What is on the agenda?

The programme moves from the law to the practical craft of giving evidence:

  • Recent case law developments relevant to expert witnesses, from James Nerney BL.
  • Expert instructions seen from both sides, with Mary Cooney of William Fry and expert witness Hilary Cotter.
  • Lessons for expert witnesses from the Lucy Letby case, presented by barrister Mark McDonald.
  • The role of artificial intelligence in investigations and report preparation, from Thomas Wood of Fast Data Science.
  • A judicial panel on expert meetings, and on expert reports and single joint reports, with Mr Justice Peart and Mr Justice Bernard Barton.
  • Evidence presentation and cross-examination, including a roleplay, led by John McLaughlin BL.

Why does the conference matter for expert evidence?

The expectations on expert witnesses have tightened. Courts want to see how an opinion was reached, what it relied on, and whether the expert stayed within the limits of their field. An opinion that cannot show its working is harder to defend, and the sessions on single joint reports and on cross-examination go straight to that point. The recurring message across the day is that credibility rests on method and on sourcing rather than on seniority.

The inclusion of a dedicated AI session reflects where the field is heading. Used carelessly, AI introduces exactly the unsourced assertion the courts are wary of. Used well, it does the opposite. It reads the record, structures it, and ties every fact back to the page it came from, so the expert spends their time on judgement rather than on assembly.

Why is ALLDOQ sponsoring it?

ALLDOQ is the secure, cloud-based workspace where expert witnesses, barristers and the courts store and share medical records and radiology, with AI built in. The connection to the conference themes is direct. A defensible opinion needs records that are organised, a chronology tied to source pages, imaging that can be examined and measured rather than screenshotted, and a full audit trail behind every document and every billed minute.

Those are the same standards the conference is built around. Sponsoring it lets us support the people doing that work, and learn from the judges and practitioners shaping what good expert evidence looks like in 2026.

If you are attending on 20 May, come and find us. If you would like to see how ALLDOQ manages medical evidence for medico-legal work, you can book a short walkthrough with our team.