Expert witness in trauma and orthopaedics.
Mr Paul Nesbitt FRCS (Tr & Orth) is a Consultant Trauma and Limb Reconstruction Surgeon based in Manchester who accepts medico-legal expert witness instructions across England and Wales. He provides independent expert opinion in personal injury and clinical negligence matters involving complex lower limb trauma, on both claimant and defendant bases, through Pathway Expert Chambers. Reports are prepared to CPR Part 35 standards.
A working trauma surgeon, not a full-time expert.
Mr Nesbitt’s expert practice is grounded in a high-volume contemporary surgical caseload. He performs over two hundred and fifty trauma and reconstruction operations each year, including seventy-three circular frames in 2025, and leads the regional limb reconstruction service at Manchester Royal Infirmary.
This places him in a strong position to comment on current standards of care, causation and prognosis in cases involving severe injury to the lower limb, drawing on what is actually being done in major trauma practice today rather than on recollection of past technique.
Where Mr Nesbitt provides expert evidence.
Mr Nesbitt prepares expert reports across the breadth of trauma and limb reconstruction. His areas of opinion include the following.
Polytrauma & Major Trauma
The management of severely injured patients and the long-term consequences of high-energy injury to the lower limb.
Open Fractures
Open fractures of the lower limb, including the timing of debridement, fixation and soft-tissue cover, and their outcomes.
Compartment Syndrome
Acute compartment syndrome, the adequacy and timing of decompression, and the management of its long-term sequelae.
Fracture-Related & Bone Infection
Fracture-related infection and chronic osteomyelitis, including diagnosis, staging and reconstruction of infected non-unions.
Peri-articular Fractures
Fractures of the tibial plateau and pilon, and the consequences of malreduction and post-traumatic deformity.
Malunion & Non-union
Malunion and non-union of long bone fractures, and the complications of intramedullary nailing and external fixation.
Types of instruction accepted.
Instructions are accepted from claimant and defendant solicitors, and on a single joint expert basis where appropriate. Mr Nesbitt is indemnified to ten million pounds.
- Personal injury — claims arising from road traffic collisions, workplace and industrial injury, and sporting trauma.
- Clinical negligence — matters concerning the management of fractures, infection and limb reconstruction.
- Claimant and defendant — instructions accepted on behalf of either party, and as a single joint expert.
- CPR Part 35 — all reports prepared to the standards required of an expert in civil proceedings.
Since commencing medico-legal work in 2023, Mr Nesbitt has been instructed in matters with a particular focus on the treatment of open fractures, orthoplastic management and compartment syndrome.
Trained as an expert, not only as a clinician.
On joining Pathway Expert Chambers, Mr Nesbitt completed structured, competency-based expert witness training covering his Part 35 duties to the court, report writing, conferences with counsel, joint statements, and the giving of oral evidence at trial. He receives continuing training and support to ensure his practice remains procedurally compliant and aligned with current legal and professional standards.
He has additionally completed formal medico-legal training covering the duties of a medical expert, medical report writing, conferences with counsel, the law of clinical negligence, and condition and prognosis reporting.
Instructing Mr Nesbitt as an expert witness.
To instruct Mr Nesbitt, or to discuss the suitability of a potential instruction, please contact Pathway Expert Chambers. Initial enquiries regarding availability, area of expertise and turnaround are welcome, and conflict checks can be carried out promptly.
Discuss an instruction.
Enquiries are answered promptly. Please include the nature of the matter, the party instructing, and any relevant dates so that availability and conflict can be confirmed.
Contact Pathway Chambers →