A system of rules usually enforced through a set of institutions (law enforcement); rules developed by society

law

-More likely than not (scientific evidence requires 50.1% agreement to be admissible)

-involves disputes between people or organizations, the goal is to compensate the victim

civil law

Beyond reasonable doubt, punish the offender

criminal law

allows for interpretation

Interpretive law

black and white

factual law

apply their expertise/opinions in a particular field that is relevant in the court of law

expert witness

testifies to what they saw; not there to offer their opinion

Factual/material witness

-Hold their colleagues accountable

- apply their expertise/opinions in the court of law

- presents the facts related to their area of expertise

Roles of an expert

-education: where you went to school, level of education

- experience: years of experience

- appearance: attire, how you present yourself to the jury

-fee (what you charge): charging more makes you seem more valuable

Factors that impact value of an expert/perception of jury

experts who tailor their opinions to fit the hiring attorney's case theory

hired gun

want to be close to 50/50; they try to decipher if you're biased

case distribution

Body language, background, hours spent on case, terminology, confidence, understand case report/make sure there are no mistakes

Preparation

counsel that brought you in

Direct examination

opposing counsel asks you questions

Indirect/cross examination

legal rule that determines if scientific evidence or expert testimony is admissible in court; 1923; general acceptance

Frye

A systemic framework for a trial judge to assess the relilability and relevance of expert witness testimony before it is presented to a jury; 1993

Daubert

What are the criteria of Daubert?

1. testibility (can it be tested)

2. publication/peer review

3. known error rate (accuracy and precision)

4. Known standards (standard methods on how to do things)

5. generally accepted in relevant scientific community

prescription medication used to treat nausea and vomiting during pregnancy

Bendictin

judge is the "gatekeeper" of evidence; trial about benedictin drug causing birth defects

Daubert vs. merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993)

if a lower court makes a decision, the higher court has to follow/honor it; appellate courts must defer to trial judges on evidentiary rulings unless there is an abuse of discretion

General Electric vs Joiner (1997)

A federal trial judge's "gatekeeping" obligation applies not only to "scientific" testimony but to all expert testimony

Kumho tire vs. Carmicheal (1999)

A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify in the form of an opinion or otherwise

Federal rules of Evidence (FRE) 702

to speak the truth, refers to the process of questioning potential jurors by the judge and attorneys to determine if they are suitable to serve on a jury in a particular case, essentially aiming to identify any biases or conflicts that might prevent them from being impartial

voir dire

Daubert vs. Frye

you need to give any evidence you have over to the defense

Brady evidence

data, method, or expert that provides insight to a case

relevance

data varies but includes the correct answer

reliability

offers guidance/opinions; advises and assists attorney's or judges on specific matter (cheaper)

consulting expert

offers opinions on the stand

testimonial expert

testifies what they saw; do NOT offer opinon

fact witness

interpretation of the law depends on where you're from; location drives interpretation of the law

legal resolution

Starts with a general principle and applies it to reach a specific conclusion; "top-down"; uses a general principle or premise as grounds to draw specific conclusions

deductive reasoning

moves from specific observations to a general conclusion; "bottom-up"; uses specific and limited observations to draw general conclusions that can be applied more widely

inductive reasoning

Consistency of results, low variability

precision

How close a measurement is to the true or accepted value (known value)

accuracy

drawing conclusions from an individual sample

- are the results being drawn truly representative of the observtions being described?

pseudoreplication

law is verbatim within the application; constitution should be interpreted based on the original meaning of its text at the time it was written; law is black and white

Originalist

interpretation from something to relate to current society

living document

concept evolves into a new concept, dependent ,on what was initally known

paradigm

independent way of thinking (didn't evolve from another concept)

revolution

a relationship between the 2 variable being examined

correlation

one event is the result of the occurrence of the other event

causation

Theory of falsification; scientific theories cannot be proven true, only falsified; philosopher; helped to develop the Daubert standard

Karl Popper

creates an inference; suggests a conclusion but does not directly prove it

circumstantial

Identifying something as belonging to a specific person, usually through unique characteristics like fingerprints or DNA, which directly link someone to a crime scene

individualization

conducts original empirical research, then experiments to verify the validity of the theory; designs and creates instrumentation and applied techniques; is published in own field with peers; and advances his field of knowledge

scientist

devoted to one kind of work or study; an expert in a specific area

specialist

what is the likelihood of getting the answer correct; frequency of errors; likelihood of incorrect results in scientific testing

error rate

limited and concentrated training, applies known techniques

technician/examiner

interpretation of material and information of an experiment

Practitioner