Expert witness
Arboriculture is an unusual mix of the practical and the academic, where hands-on experience makes all the difference to the calibre of advice that a consultant can offer. After graduating with a forestry degree in 1978, Jeremy Barrell spent two years with the Forestry Commission, followed by 15 years running his own tree contracting business. This experience provided the practical basis for his last 20 years of arboricultural consultancy.
Since 2004, there have been 11 written civil judgments relating to harm arising from tree failures and Jeremy has appeared in six of them. He has also acted for the Woodland Trust in the failed criminal prosecution brought by Her Majesty’s Advocate in Scotland (2012) and has appeared in two recent high-profile English inquests (2014).