Featured Articles – Expert Witness Features – page 23

How do you find a reliable way to identify the forensic expert your case needs?

GENE MORRISON WAS an expert – an expert in convincing the unwary that he could provide them with reliable professional evidence for use in court. He claimed expertise in psychology, fire investigation, fingerprints and other specialisms. He had credible qualifications in none of them, making his living with the aid of purchased degrees, gullible contacts and creative use of the internet. In the meantime, the legal aid budget, and doubtless the pockets of some individual clients, became many pounds the lighter.

In February Morrison was convicted of fraud and sentenced to five years. But what of those who were taken in – clients who relied on him to help their case and solicitors who might have been expected to rely on more than word of mouth, anecdote, smooth talk and, doubtless, misleading advertisements? Should they all have been taken in?

Employment experts and their contribution to the evidence

We all know something about employment, don’t we? Maybe we know more about our own area of the employment market than about the generality, but everybody has some knowledge, or can access it.

As an eminent judge once asked me: “Why do I need your evidence when I can see the claimant before me and make an assessment of him, and I can get earnings data from The New Earnings Survey?”

Openness or aggression? It’s a question of culture

My long and lone struggle has been to convince the legal profession, Crown Prosecution Service and the courts in the UK that cultural, religious and ethnic characteristics of a person are as important and useful in legal considerations to deliver justice as one’s age, gender and occupation or social class.

In this first article I give some examples from my observations emphasising how cultural issues may affect the delivery of justice.

Expertise with vital evidence in mind

PSYCHOLOGISTS SPECIFICALLY trained in legal issues, as well as those with no formal training, are often called by legal parties to testify as expert witnesses.

In criminal trials, an expert witness may be called to testify about a vast range of issues such as eyewitness memory, mistaken identity and fitness to plead (in court) - to name just a few.

Handle with care...

CHILD ABUSE IS probably the widest known type of abuse and involves many complex factors relating to legal issues. Dealing with this difficult situation sensitively, whilst attempting to provide legal evidence is the role of the child psychologist.

Psychologists may complete child abuse investigations for government or private agencies, for a parent making allegations against another adult or parent, for a parent being accused of child abuse, for the court as part of a custody or visiting rights risk assessment, or as part of the treatment of a child or adult.