Law Commons^™

Experts, Statistics, Science & Bad Science, Curtis E.A. Karnow

Curtis E.A. Karnow

Articles, books, and other online resources relating to expert testimony with a specific focus on problems with peer review, bad science, and statistics

Litigation Technology For The Modern Practitioner, Jonathan H. Lomurro Esq. Llm, Christopher T. Campbell Esq, Matthew K. Blaine Esq, Stephanie L. Lomurro Esq, Christina V. Harvey Esq

Jonathan H. Lomurro Esq. LLM

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Ice: How Plaintiffs May Establish Premises Liability In "Black Ice" Cases Where The Dangerous Condition Is By Definition Not Visible Or Apparent To The Property Owner, Hon. Mark Dillon

Hon. Mark C. Dillon

Plaintiffs that are injured as a result of encounters with "black ice," as distinguished from regular ice, face peculiar difficulties in establishing liability against property owners for the dangerous icy conditions on their premises. Black ice results from a unique process under certain conditions by which air bubbles are expelled from water during the freezing process, rendering the ice virtually invisible to the naked eye. Property owners therefore are not typically on actual or constructive notice of black ice conditions as to become subject to the legal requirement of undertaking measures to remedy the conditions. This article explores the law …

Solving The High Cost Of The "Review" Stage Of Electronic Discovery, Ken Chasse Mr.

Ken Chasse Mr.

The high cost of the "review of documents" stage of electronic discovery can be solved by having the client index the texts in its records system.Then the client's lawyer can search that index, thus combining the accessing and review stages of electronic discovery, but do it with the speed of electronic searching, rather than reading. Thus the same advantages are created as used in legal research: 1. indexing, 2. expert researcher, and, 3. the speed of electronic searching. TAR (technology assisted review) is a faulty strategy in that it depends upon "reading" texts instead of indexing them when created or …

A Canada Evidence Code Should Replace The Canada Evidence Act, Ken Chasse Mr.

Ken Chasse Mr.

The need for codification of the law of evidence in Canada, and the failed effort to enact an Evidence Code. A detailed description of the national consultation process and its results is provided.

Proving Customary Law In Uganda: Roadmaps And Roadblocks, David B. Dennison

David Brian Dennison

Customary law is second-class law in Uganda. While customary law applies in many “grass root” settings, customary law struggles for legitimacy within formal legal environments. Matters of customary proof exemplify this disconnect. Ugandan methods of customary proof are the product of British colonial precedent. Despite longstanding calls for revised approaches, little has changed since Uganda’s independence in 1962. The colonially crafted framework of customary proof devalues custom and culture. In terms of proof, Ugandan courts treat customary law less favorably than foreign law. Judges have no duty to know customary law. Instead customary law is a fact to be proved. …

Crawford & Its Progeny In Texas & The Nation's Other State Supreme Courts, Dannye Holley

Dannye Holley

CRAWFORD & ITS PROGENY IN TEXAS & THE

NATION’S OTHER STATE SUPREME COURTS

This article is designed to track three major conceptual themes. First, the elusive pursuit of scholarship which engages both the practicing bar and academics. Second, how our federalism is shaped by the interaction of the “Supreme Courts”. Finally, identifying metrics upon which to base a principled assessment of whether a United States Supreme Court decision is a “watershed” decision.

The article documents that Crawford and its progeny have created a powerful convergence of the interests of academics and the practicing bar. It does so by making reference …

Not For The Truth Of The Matter: Defendant's Hearsay And The Necessity Of Limiting Instructions In Psychological Defenses, Brian A. Ford

Brian A Ford

This paper presents a thorough discussion of the use of a defendant's hearsay statements to a psychological expert as the basis of the expert's opinion at trial, under California Law.

The Piranha Is As Deadly As The Shark: A Case For The Limitation On Deceptive Practices In Dna Collection, Brett A. Bauman

Brett A Bauman

Police deception tactics are utilized throughout the United States as a way to catch unsuspecting criminals. Although criticized in many respects, most deceptive police techniques are not only legal, but are actually encouraged. DNA collection and analysis is no exception—techniques are frequently used by law enforcement officers in an attempt to collect a suspect’s genetic specimen in the interest of solving crimes. While law enforcement officers typically have the best interests of society in mind, the current practices employed by officers to collect suspects’ DNA violate the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment provides protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and …

Cipa V. State Secrets: How A Few Mistakes Confused Two Important National Security Privileges, Elisa Poteat

Elisa Poteat

No abstract provided.

Vanishing Point: Alzheimer's Disease And Its Challenges To The Federal Rules Of Evidence, Ann Murphy

Ann Murphy

ABSTRACT Vanishing Point: Alzheimer’s Disease and Its Challenges to the Federal Rules of Evidence As of 2012, an estimated 5.4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease (AD). By the year 2030, due to the overall aging of our population, the number of individuals with AD is expected to increase dramatically. Courts will consequently confront evidentiary issues involving parties, defendants, witnesses, and victims who are suffering from various stages of the disease. Testimony of course involves descriptions of events that happened in the past and thus frequently involves memory. This article explores three specific areas of evidence that will be affected …

Empirical Fallacies Of Evidence Law: A Critical Look At The Admission Of Prior Sex Crimes, Aviva A. Orenstein, Tamara Rice Lave

Aviva A. Orenstein

In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, Federal Rules of Evidence 413-414 allow jurors to use the accused's prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity to commit the sex crime charged. As reflected in their legislative history, these propensity rules rest on the assumption that sexual predators represent a small number of highly deviant and recidivistic offenders. This view of who commits sex crimes justified the passage of the sex-crime propensity rules and continues to influence their continuing adoption among the states and the way courts assess such evidence under Rule 403. In depending on …

Empirical Fallacies Of Evidence Law: A Critical Look At The Admission Of Prior Sex Crimes, Aviva A. Orenstein

Aviva A. Orenstein

In a significant break with traditional evidence rules and policies, Federal Rules of Evidence 413-414 allow jurors to use the accused's prior sexual misconduct as evidence of character and propensity to commit the sex crime charged. As reflected in their legislative history, these propensity rules rest on the assumption that sexual predators represent a small number of highly deviant and recidivistic offenders. This view of who commits sex crimes justified the passage of the sex-crime propensity rules and continues to influence their continuing adoption among the states and the way courts assess such evidence under Rule 403. In depending on …

Death And Rehabilitation, Meghan J. Ryan

Meghan J. Ryan

While rehabilitation is reemerging as an important penological goal, the Supreme Court is eroding the long-revered divide between capital and non-capital sentences. This raises the question of whether and how rehabilitation applies in the capital context. Courts and scholars have long concluded that it does not—that death is completely irrelevant to rehabilitation. Yet, historically, the death penalty in this country has been imposed in large part to induce the rehabilitation of offenders’ characters. Additionally, there are tales of the worst offenders transforming their characters when they are facing death, and several legal doctrines are based on the idea that death …

A Response To Harel And Porat: On The Inadmissibility Of The Aggregated Probabilities Principle, Doron Menashe Dr.

Mahdi Naamnee

This article is a response to an article by Alon Harel and Ariel Porat, recently published in the Michigan Law Review. In the article, the authors argue that, under certain conditions, courts should be permitted to convict a defendant in an unspecified offense. This possibility is meant to address situations in which there is no reasonable doubt that the defendant committed an offense, even though the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant committed any specific offense of which he was accused. The authors term this new decision principle as the Aggregated Probabilities Principle – APP.

In …

Deliberating Beyond Evidence: Lessons From Integrated Assessment Modelling, Elisa Vecchione

Elisa Vecchione

The premises of this paper rely on associating policy inertia toward action on climate change with the inadequacy of the classical ‘liability culture’ of evidence-based policy-making to deal with this global environmental challenge. To provide support to this hypothesis, the following discussion analyses the technical properties and the current policy use of Integrated Assessment Modelling (IAM) of economic-climate interactions. The paper contends that IAM is still not clarified enough as far as its potential for information-production in the framework of policy making processes is concerned, and that this fact is symptomatic of the current inability of societies to undertake the …

The Crucible And The Federal Rules Of Evidence, Martin Pritikin

Martin Pritikin

Counter-intuitively, one of the best ways to learn the practice-oriented topic of evidence may be by studying a work of fiction—specifically, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which dramatizes the Salem witch trials. The play puts the reader in the position of legal advocate, and invites strategic analysis of evidentiary issues. A close analysis of the dialogue presents an opportunity to explore both the doctrinal nuances of and policy considerations underlying the most important topics covered by the Federal Rules of Evidence, including relevance, character evidence and impeachment, opinion testimony, hearsay, and the mode and order of interrogation.

Rape Trauma, The State, And The Art Of Tracey Emin, Yxta M. Murray

Yxta M. Murray

Prosecutors use “rape trauma syndrome” evidence at rape trials to explain victims’ “counterintuitive” behaviors and demeanors, such as late reporting, denying their rapes, returning to the scenes of their attacks, and lack of emotional affect. Courts and experts, in instructions and testimony, usually describe victim reticence as a product of “shame” or “trauma.” Feminist critics of R.T.S. evidence posit that it is based on incomplete evidence, because most rapes are unreported. Furthermore, they object to its condescending, sexist, and colonial construction of rape victims and their emotions. In this Article, I respond to feminist critics by studying the work of …

Thank You For Testifying: The Need To Re-Examine Admission Of Expert Testimony Under Rule 703 In Relation To The Confrontation Clause In Light Of Williams V. Illinois, Derek Regensburger

Derek Regensburger

In Williams v. Illinois, the Supreme Court, in a plurality opinion, held that the basis evidence underlying an expert’s opinion may be introduced in a criminal trial without violating the Confrontation Clause. The Court also created a new primary purpose test for determining the testimonial nature of statements. Hearsay statements must now be both formalized statements made with the purpose of providing evidence against the accused as well as being made against a targeted individual. The ruling has the potential to impact the way in which testimonial hearsay statements are analyzed by court, and it could open the door for …

What's Good In Theory May Be Flawed In Practice: Potential Legal Consequences Of Poor Implementation Of A Theoretical Sample, Melanie S. Williams, A. Lynn Phillips, G. Michael Phillips

Melanie S. Williams

The article discusses the problem of the use in litigation of statistical sampling. Sample-based research is increasingly used in cases as diverse as products liability, antitrust, intellectual property, and criminal law, among others. Sample-based research provides objective evidence upon which decisions, damages and liability may rest. Despite its importance, however, statistical evidence is often misused and misunderstood by attorneys who may be unfamiliar with the underlying form of analysis. The paper explores common errors when using litigative samples, comments upon best practices for the use in law of sample-based research, and demonstrates the importance of sound statistical sampling and data …

Persuasive Visions: Film And Memory, Jessica M. Silbey

Jessica Silbey

This commentary takes a new look at law and film studies through the lens of film as memory. Instead of describing film as evidence and foreordaining its role in truth-seeking processes, it thinks instead of film as individual, institutional and cultural memory, placing it squarely within the realm of contestability. Paralleling film genres, the commentary imagines four forms of memory that film could embody: memorabilia (cinema verite), memoirs (autobiographical and biographical film), ceremonial memorials (narrative film monuments of a life, person or institution), and mythic memory (dramatic fictional film). Imagining film as memory resituates film’s role in law (procedural, substantive …

Images In/Of Law, Jessica M. Silbey

Jessica Silbey

The proliferation of images in and of law lends itself to surprisingly complex problems of epistemology and power. Understanding through images is innate; most of us easily understand images without thinking. But arriving at mutually agreeable understandings of images is also difficult. Translating images into shared words leads to multiple problems inherent in translation and that pose problems for justice. Despite our saturated imagistic culture, we have not established methods to pursue that translation process with confidence. This article explains how images are intuitively understood and yet collectively inscrutable, posing unique problems for resolving legal conflicts that demand common and …

Can You Provide Evidence Of Insufficient Evidence? The Precautionary Principle At The Wto, Elisa Vecchione

Elisa Vecchione

This paper aims to demonstrate that the WTO jurisprudence on science-related trade disputes has become entangled with a specific vision of science that has prevented any possible application of the precautionary principle. This situation is due to reasons of both legal procedures specific to the WTO dispute settlement system and the substantive nature of precautionary measures. Indeed, their foundation on “insufficient scientific evidence” dramatically complicates the question of the probative value of science for the purpose of legal adjudication and creates a seemingly contradictory situation, of which the Panel on the EC-Biotech case confirmed to be a victim: that of …

Does 'Sorry' Incriminate? Evidence, Harm And The Meaning Of Apologies, Jeffrey S. Helmreich

Jeffrey S. Helmreich

Apology has proven a dramatically effective means of resolving conflict and preventing litigation. Still, many injurers, particularly physicians, withhold apologies because they have long been used as evidence of liability. Recently, a majority of states in the U.S. have passed “Apology Laws” designed to lift this disincentive, by shielding apologies from evidentiary use. However, most of the new laws protect only expressions of benevolence and sympathy (such as “I feel bad about what happened to you”). They exclude full apologies, which express regret, remorse or self-criticism (“I should have prevented it,” for example). The state measures thereby reinforce a prevailing …

“Bull” Coming From The States: Why The U.S. Supreme Court Should Use Williams V. Illinois To Close One Of Bullcoming’S Confrontation Clause Loopholes, Tara Klimek Price

Tara Price

Imagine that you are selected as a juror in a trial where the defendant is accused of driving while under the influence of alcohol. You listen to the police officer who testifies that he observed the defendant and believed him to be intoxicated. You hear about how after obtaining a warrant, the officer took the defendant to the emergency room for a blood-alcohol test. The police officer finishes his testimony, and the next witness will testify about the results of the defendant’s blood-alcohol test.

But before the witness can testify, defense counsel objects. Apparently, this is not the laboratory analyst …

A Defense Attorney’S Guide To Confrontation After Michigan V. Bryant, Kathryn K. Polonsky

Kathryn K Polonsky

In 1603, the Crown charged Sir Walter Raleigh with high treason in part for plotting to murder King James I. In preparing for trial, Lord Cobham, Raleigh’s alleged co-conspirator, was interrogated and signed a sworn confession. During trial, the King used the Crown-procured ex parte testimony of Cobham against Raleigh. Raleigh demanded Cobham be brought before the court so Raleigh might interrogate him “face to face.” Raleigh was sure Cobham would prove his innocence. After all, Cobham had written a letter stating his charges against Raleigh contained no truth.

The Judges refused to allow Raleigh the use of Cobham’s exonerating …

The Competing Claims Of Canon And Civil Law To Accessing Diocesan Secret Archives, Stephen Braunlich

Stephen Braunlich

The fallout from Catholic clerics’ sexual abuse of children has continued, despite the best efforts of bishops to respond effectively, and has led to ongoing criminal and civil actions. Central to the protracted fights have been questions of compelled disclosure of diocesan secret archives: What records did the Church keep? Can they be discovered? Does the First Amendment provide protection? What is the role of privilege? Does the public have a right to everyman’s evidence, or is some protected because it comes from a religious organization? I ultimately conclude that while the rules of discovery and evidence do not protect …

Bad Science Makes Bad Law: How The Deference Afforded To Psychiatry Undermines Civil Liberties, Samantha Godwin

Samantha Godwin

Courts and lawmakers trust psychiatric expertise when making judicial and public policy decisions concerning mental health, but is this trust well placed? This paper adopts a philosophy of science approach informed by medical research to evaluating the validity of psychiatric classification. This provides the basis for an interdisciplinary critical analysis of civil commitment law and use of psychiatric expert witnesses in light of legal evidence standards. This analysis demonstrates that involuntary civil commitment as it now stands is incompatible with broader due process and civil rights concerns and affords an unjustifiable evidentiary status to psychiatric diagnosis.

Avoiding A Confrontation?: How Courts Have Erred In Finding That Nontestimonial Hearsay Is Beyond The Scope Of The Bruton Doctrine, Colin Miller

Colin Miller

The Bruton doctrine holds that the Confrontation Clause is violated by the admission at a joint jury trial of a nontestifying co-defendant’s confession that facially incriminates other defendants but is inadmissible against them under the rules of evidence. Under this doctrine, Co-Defendant’s confession to Police Officer that “Defendant and I killed Victim” could not be admitted unless Co-Defendant testified at trial. But what if Co-Defendant made his confession to his mother, his brother, his lover, or his friend? While the vast majority of courts before 2004 would have held that such “noncustodial” confessions violated the Bruton doctrine, the tables have …

Violent Video Games & "Constitutionalized" Negligence, Deana Ann Pollard Sacks

Deana A Pollard

Violent video games create serious risks of harm to children’s brain functioning, health, and safety. Extremely wealthy game producers’ demonstrated disregard for children’s safety raises questions about lower courts’ negligent speech liability rules that effectively bar tort liability for unreasonably dangerous speech, including violent video games. Violent Video Games & “Constitutionalized” Negligence reviews the latest scientific data on the effects of violent video games on children and challenges the prevailing negligent speech liability rules generally, and specifically relative to violent video game producers’ relationship with children. Most courts have adopted the Brandenburg incitement test to prove fault and causation in …