Admissibility Versus Sufficiency: Controlling the Quality of Expert Witness Testimony in the United States

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Green ◽  
Joseph Sanders
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Expert Witness ◽  
The United States ◽  
Witness Testimony ◽  
Expert Witness Testimony

The Irresponsible Expert Witness: A Failure of Biomedical Graduate Education and Professional Accountability

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 754-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Brent
Keyword(s):  
Expert Witness ◽  
Expert Witnesses ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Witness Testimony ◽  
Expert Witness Testimony ◽  
Professional Accountability ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
And Function

Many forces have created the epidemic of negligence and malpractice litigation. One of the contributing factors to the rising rate of nonmeritorious litigation is the increasing number of unqualified and irresponsible expert witnesses. The high remuneration has attracted physican-scientists who are unaware of the proper role of an expert witness. They are frequently manipulated by the attorneys and function as partisans rather than scholars. The role of the expert witness should be taught in medical and graduate school. Testimony should be treated as a scholarly endeavor and experts should be encouraged to seek peer review of their opinions and not to testify secretly and in isolation. It is suggested that greater visibility of experts and their testimony (light of day phenomenon) should raise the quality of expert witness testimony and encourage more qualified experts to participate as expert witnesses, thus removing the stigmata usually associated with unqualified expert witnesses.

scholarly journals Maternity Patients' Advocates in the 1990s: Changing Debates and New Debaters

1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine H. Shearer
Keyword(s):  
Continuing Education ◽  
Expert Witness ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Perinatal Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Witness Testimony ◽  
Expert Witness Testimony ◽  
Birth Centers ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Education Courses

AbstractBeginning in the 1960s, the maternity patients' movement in the United States was joined by lay, medical, and political critics who protested the escalating cost, poor and inequitable distribution, and overspecialization of medical care. During the 1970s some goals of the maternity patients' movement were met, including fathers' attendance at birth, care in low intervention birth centers, and keeping the newborn baby with the parents immediately after delivery. At the same time, however, perinatal care became ever more based on new technology, tests, and procedures, some of which were promoted by doctor-developers in continuing education courses and in expert witness testimony at malpractice trials. Primary obstetric units closed while urban and suburban centers advertised new services to people who could pay. In the 1990s the maternity patients' advocates have most of the same complaints as in 1970, as well as many new ones.

The Geriatric Witness

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simha Ravven ◽  
Howard Zonana
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Eyewitness Identification ◽  
Expert Witness ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Eyewitness Testimony ◽  
State Courts ◽  
Witness Testimony

Witness testimony of the elderly is a topic of growing importance in U.S. courts. Because the number and proportion of older persons in the United States is growing, it is likely that more elderly people will be called on to provide witness testimony. This chapter examines the types of challenges specific to the geriatric witness in the courtroom. It reviews the elements of competency to serve as a witness in federal and state courts; challenges facing elderly witnesses, including neurocognitive disorders and sensory impairments; and the literature on perceptions of credibility and the geriatric witness and the ability of individuals with dementia to testify meaningfully. Case law pertaining to protection of elderly witnesses, specifically Crawford v. Washington and United States v. Campbell, are discussed as they relate to the geriatric witness. The 2011 New Jersey Supreme Court decision of State v. Henderson is examined as well. This decision addresses the science of memory as it relates to eyewitness testimony. Henderson led to revisions of admission of eyewitness identification evidence and juror instructions. The elderly expert witness is also discussed.

Improving the Quality of Expert Witness Testimony

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-513
Author(s):  
ROBERT L. BRENT
Keyword(s):  
American Academy ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Expert Witness ◽  
Tort Law ◽  
Present System ◽  
Witness Testimony ◽  
Expert Witness Testimony ◽  
American Academy Of Pediatrics ◽  
Excessive Number

Although various groups in our society have bemoaned the increasing frequency of negligence litigation and its concomitant costs, there has been an absence of any coordinated approach to solve this serious economic and social problem. Many physician groups, including our own American Academy of Pediatrics,1 have made attempts at tort reform. In my own earlier writings I suggested numerous alterations in the present system of tort law that I believed would improve the overall fairness of the system and decrease the excessive number of nonmeritorius law suits, not only in the medicolegal arena but in the whole area of negligence litigation.2,3

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