FAQs
General
Yes. For more information about Social Work assessments please click here.
Yes. For more information about Paediatric assessments please click here.
Yes. For more information about psychiatric assessments please click here.
Yes. For more information about psychological assessments please click here.
You need the relevant qualifications for your profession and experience. You will also need to be registered with your relevant professional body and possess professional indemnity insurance. For more details, please click here.
An expert witness is someone who has knowledge not normally possessed by the average person concerning the topic that he is to testify about. Their duty is to assist the court in making their decisions.
Our head office is in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, but we are able to offer assessments and ongoing support throughout nationally through our national network of experts.
Carter Brown was established in 2001 as a company to provide expert witnesses for family law cases. Since then we have expanded the range of assessments we provide and the services we offer. For more information please see our about us page.
REFERRALS
Carter Brown has numerous assessors who speak a variety of languages, ranging from French to Mandarin.
Yes, all our experts work within the prescribed rates.
Our assessors are very flexible on timescales and the majority can accommodate very quick turnarounds from instruction to reporting.
Our referrals team are available between 9.00am – 5.00pm, Monday to Friday. They will require case information from you in order to provide you with the CVs, availability and cost estimates of our assessors. We will always endeavour to provide you with a choice of assessors where applicable, and can provide this information within 30 minutes if necessary.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
We always provide reports electronically for speed and efficiency. Each report will have a digitally-captured signature. However, if you do require a hard copy signature, this can be arranged.
Our QA team have received extensive training on a variety of topics including what makes a good expert assessment, independent social work assessments, giving constructive feedback, formatting and layout of reports. All team members undergo an intensive induction process, whereby following a period of independent reading of anonymised reports their work is checked by a more experienced member of staff and case by case feedback offered. All of our ‘in house’ training for the team is delivered via interactive exercises, case vignettes and group discussion with a strong focus on making assessments as robust as they can possibly be.
All members of the team have also received training from the Society for Editors and Proofreaders regarding onscreen editing or proof reading.
Our dedicated and highly trained Quality Assurance team will ensure the quality of each report. They will read each assessment and provide comprehensive feedback to the assessor regarding spelling, grammar, formatting and content. This doesn’t cost the client anything extra – it’s all part of our service to you.
CASE HANDLERS
Your case handler will be assigned to you upon confirmation of the assessment – your case handler will be your single point of contact for the life of the assessment. A case handler will deal with all your queries during the assessment process.
We aim to achieve this and over 95% of all our reports are filed within the agreed date, however, we will always keep you informed of any changes or updates.
ACCOUNTS
Payment can be made preferably via BACS. Our details are available upon request and are printed on all of our invoices. You may also pay via cheque.
We submit all invoices via email. Invoices will be accompanied by a Schedule of Charges outlining the split of costs if applicable. All invoices will be for your share of the costs only. If other parties are responsible for a share of the costs, they will have been invoiced separately.
Our payment terms are 30 days.
