It is rare if ever that a proffered expert will be deemed so unqualified as to be precluded from testifying. Why? The threshold for expertise is decidedly low. To use the Pennsylvania test, “[t]o qualify as an expert witness, a witness need only have a reasonable pretension to specialized knowledge, on a subject for which expert
We live in a time where every action we take, every premise we rely on, warrants scrutiny through the prisms of race and implicit bias. This reckoning, long overdue for too many individuals and institutions, was brought about by the murder by police of George Floyd and the consequent outpouring of grief, rage and commitment.
Judging the immorality of the four police officers charged with the death of George Floyd is easy. Mr. Floyd was handcuffed and on the ground, with four armed officers over him. All the police had to do was listen and stop – he would still be handcuffed, he would still be unable to harm them;
Too often, the mindset in negotiating is completely adversarial – we are good, they are bad; we are right, they are wrong; we are just and they are unjust; and, perhaps most perniciously, we are reasonable and they are not and will not be so. Even Ronald Reagan didn’t posture in this way – his
I suspect that many if not most lawyers are unaware of “narratology,” defined as “the study of structure in narratives” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/narratology, last visited April 5, 2020) or “a humanities discipline dedicated to the study of the logic, principles, and practices of narrative representation…” (https://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/node/48.html, last visited April 5, 2020). Yet a definition that itself uses
In his famous [infamous] TEN COMMANDMENTS OF CROSS-EXAMINATION lecture, the late Irving Younger suggested that the cross-examiner need be “tactful” in cross-examination. He gives the following example: For example, if a witness for the other side was the defendant’s mother testifying in support of his insanity defense…what are you going to say to the jury
Anyone who thinks about the Law of Evidence knows that there are gaps between cognitive psychology and the rules we try cases by. Excitement may distort or inhibit perception, but we permit and rely upon excited utterances as statements valued for their sincerity and truth. The dangers of limiting instructions are clear – they sometimes
Two recent decisions reflect remarkably different values in how trials are conducted – one addressing whether we need judges who are awake and alert, the second whether it is permissible to attack defense counsel in a criminal case as a truth-twisting purveyor of information. Let’s start with the judges. On November 27, 2019, a unanimous
Tremendous time and effort are spent on word choice – drafting the perfect motion in limine, opening statement, and/or closing argument. However, it may be that the more time spent on how the ideas are delivered will enhance persuasion more than the words used. This is brought home in a new research paper, How The
The joke for criminal defense lawyers, such as it is, is the response to the question “how do you represent guilty people?” The answer/punchline is “that’s easy; it’s representing someone who is actually innocent that causes nightmares.” You may ‘lose the case,’ but your client loses freedom. As the original trial lawyer for Willie Veasy,