The work of forensic psychiatrists has expanded into the controversial area of cases involving new religious movements. Challenges to the expert witness in such cases include new questions and a large body of relevant literature. Published appeals decisions have appeared with judicial comments on the conduct of the involved experts. This article presents the comments about expert witnesses from...

18.1.1 Expert testimony: background The purpose of civil and criminal trials is to decide issues of fact and of law. In England, Wales and Scotland, issues of fact in the most serious criminal trials are decided by juries and issues of law by judges. For several centuries, decisions about issues of fact, in certain cases, have been assisted by experts. As early as 1554, Saunders J remarked in t...

Members of the ACCF or the AHA have a variety of roles aside from their professional relationships with these organizations. Delineation of these varying roles may not always be entirely clear. A member’s particular expertise in research or as a care provider naturally provides the impetus for his or her official contributions to the organization’s programs, written position statements, and gui...

compensation. The guideline states, “The witness should receive compensation that is appropriate to his or her expertise and qualifications. Acceptance of a fee that is disproportionate to those customary for such professional endeavors is improper and unethical. . . . ‘ Unfortunately, since many lawyers and legal firms have difficulty obtaining physicians, they often tempt physicians by their ...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of death qualification in venirepersons' evaluations of expert scientific testimony in capital trials. 200 venirepersons from the 12th Judicial Circuit in Bradenton, FL completed a booklet that contained the following: one question that measured their attitudes toward the death penalty; one question that categorized their death-qualification...

Neurologists have professional, ethical, and social obligations to ensure that expert witness testimony is reliable, objective, and truthful. In the past, an absence of professional regulatory oversight combined with immunity from civil litigation allowed the partisan expert to flourish. This is no longer the case. The expert witness unquestionably faces an increasingly perilous liability clima...

Eyewitness error is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. In fact, the American Psychological Association estimates that one in three eyewitnesses make an erroneous identification. In this review, we look briefly at some of the causes of eyewitness error. We examine what jurors, judges, attorneys, law officers, and experts from various countries know about eyewitness testimony and ...

This article provides a primer on forensic voice comparison (aka forensic speaker recognition), a branch of forensic science in which the forensic practitioner analyzes a voice recording in order to provide an expert opinion that will help the trier-of-fact determine the identity of the speaker. The article begins with an explanation of ways in which human speech varies within and between speak...

The need for expert and unbiased participation in legal proceedings by physicians, industrial hygienists, toxicologists, environmental scientists, regulators, and similar professionals is hampered by lack of familiarity with the requirements of expert testimony and lack of opportunities for professional training in this activity. Drawing on material developed in a continuing education course of...

For decades, parties accused of patent infringement in district court litigation have relied upon the doctrine of inherent anticipation to attack the validity of patent claims. Generally, such inherency arguments are supported by testimony from an expert witness. Because America Invents Act reviews before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board allow parties to subm...