Expert Witnesses

Paper Summary:

The paper explains that expert witnesses are professionals qualified to help people in the courtroom with their search for the truth. The paper relates that they offer knowledge and information about a subject of their expertise and they also help the fact-finder in drawing informed inferences from available facts. The paper refers to the Daubert case of 1993.

From the Paper:

"It is however the trial judge who decided whether the expert witness is qualified enough to offer help. In many cases, there has been an influx of "junk science" in the courtrooms, which led to the famous Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals ruling in 1993 where it was decided that extreme caution must be exercised when permitting evidence in a courtroom. According to Brown et al. (2005), expert witness is someone "who by reason of education or specialized experience possesses superior knowledge respecting a subject about which persons having no particular training are incapable of forming an accurate opinion or deducting correct conclusions'."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brown, David B., et al., "The Expert Medical Witness in the State of Michigan: A Cause for Concern", (2005) 9 Journal of Medicine and Law, at 279.
• Anderson, Glenn R., Expert Evidence (Markham: Lexis Nexis, 2005) at page 10.
• Anderson, Glenn R., Expert Evidence (Markham: LexisNexis, 2005), supra note 64, at page 15.
• Anderson, Glenn R., Expert Evidence, (Markham, LexisNexis, 2005), at page 15
• Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 113 S.Ct. 2786 (1993)

More papers on Expert Witnesses:

• Analytical Essay # 59802 : "Expert Witnesses"
• Essay # 43016 : "Expert Witnesses in the Courts"
• Analytical Essay # 143974 : "Child Witnesses in Canadian Courts"

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