Blind Expertise,
2010
Boston University School of Law
Blind Expertise, Christopher Robertson
Faculty Scholarship
The United States spends many billions of dollars on its system of civil litigation, and expert witnesses appear in a huge portion of cases. Yet litigants select and retain expert witnesses in ways that create the appearance of biased hired guns on both sides of every case, thereby depriving factfinders of a clear view of the facts. As a result, factfinders too often arrive at the wrong conclusions, thus undermining the deterrence and compensation functions of litigation. Court-appointment of experts has been widely proposed as a solution, yet it raises legitimate concerns about accuracy and has failed to gain traction …
A Hedgehog On The Witness Stand-What's The Big Idea?: The Challenges Of Using Daubert To Assess Social Science And Nonscientific Testimony,
2010
South Texas College of Law Houston
A Hedgehog On The Witness Stand-What's The Big Idea?: The Challenges Of Using Daubert To Assess Social Science And Nonscientific Testimony, Maxine D. Goodman
American University Law Review
No abstract provided.
Electronic Records And The Law Of Evidence In Canada: The Uniform Electronic Evidence Act Twelve Years Later,
2010
Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia
Electronic Records And The Law Of Evidence In Canada: The Uniform Electronic Evidence Act Twelve Years Later, Luciana Duranti, Corinne M. Rogers, Anthony F. Sheppard
All Faculty Publications
This article analyzes the adequacy of The Uniform Electronic Evidence Act, twelve years after its adoption, in dealing with the complexity of the records created, used, or stored in the digital environment. In the face of rapidly changing technology, the authors believe that the nature and characteristics of electronic records cannot be accounted for by simple modifications to the existing law of evidence, but require a new enactment following upon a close collaboration among records professions, legal and law enforcement professions, and the information technology profession. The new rules, comprehensively encompassing issues of relevance, admissibility, and weight of electronic documentary …
Sex, Threats, And Absent Victims: The Lessons Of Regina V. Bedingfield For Modern Confrontation And Domestic Violence Cases,
2010
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Sex, Threats, And Absent Victims: The Lessons Of Regina V. Bedingfield For Modern Confrontation And Domestic Violence Cases, Aviva A. Orenstein
Articles by Maurer Faculty
In 2004, Crawford v. Washington, authored by Justice Antonin Scalia, revolutionized the law of confrontation by requiring that, aside from two discrete exceptions, all testimonial statements (those made with the expectation that they will serve to prosecute the accused) be subject to cross-examination. This new interpretation of the Sixth Amendment confrontation clause has profoundly affected domestic violence cases, making it much harder to prosecute them successfully.
Although Justice Scalia’s approach to confrontation is new, it is strikingly similar to the analysis in Regina v. Bedingfield, a notorious English murder case, which excluded from the evidence an alleged statement by the …
The Disordered And Discredited Plaintiff: Psychiatric Evidence In Civil Litigation,
2010
University of Maine School of Law
The Disordered And Discredited Plaintiff: Psychiatric Evidence In Civil Litigation, Deirdre M. Smith
Cardozo Law Review
This Article examines civil defendants' use of evidence of a plaintiff's alleged current or prior psychiatric diagnosis or treatment by analyzing and critiquing the three primary rationales offered in support of the relevancy of such evidence: (1) to suggest an alternative cause of the plaintiff's alleged psychological injuries; (2) to impeach the plaintiff's credibility by asserting that a mental illness interferes with the plaintiff's ability to recount or to perceive events accurately; and (3) to reveal certain propensities that inform how the plaintiff likely acted with respect to the events at issue in the litigation. While attaching a label of …
