The fields of law, sociology and psychology have currently banded together to make for a more workable court system. This is relevant to many types of cases where professional people may be called upon to testify for or against a person in court. Their testimonies are often circumstantial but helps build the case for a lawyer by establishing just cause or culpability.
Psychologists, legal experts, and sociologists are wondering if the testimonies of experts might not be affecting legal cases in a negative way. They need to know if things like expert witness child abuse is able to deliver relevant and meaningful things to the judicial process. Mostly, they are concerned that lawyers will not use it just for winning a case.
Experts take the stand as representatives of their profession to clarify certain issues related to their field. This part of the court process is also when people like forensics specialists and MEs are given their time to lay out precise details related to the case, the better for the jury to make a good and just judgment. This practice has come to encompass anyone with the relevant professional training.
Law courts will hear out professional witnesses for necessary support for judgments that will be given. The judges and jurors are made to decide whether the testimony is good enough, but counselors can subjectify it with rhetorical arguments. They can therefore make the testimony worthless.
For child abuse, there are so many fine points to any one jury process that can be used any which way by a lawyer. For the more coldblooded, wrecking reputations by implication, using expert testimony to convince jurors of guilt, and other similar methods may be the way to win a case. But the professionals who are called in to testify are calling foul.
Ethical concerns should have a solid base, something the law may require on specific points and the definitions thereof. If the current outcry for more ethical integrity for expert testimony in cases like these is heard and acted on, the definitions should have prejudicial values taken out. This will enable the experts to testify without any fear that they are being used as pawns for legal debate.
Whatever decisions are made in this regard, the fact remains that expert witnesses should not be used indiscriminately. Testifying limits the things a psychologist, say, can provide a case in terms of more objective views. In cross examinations, the attorney may ask any question that can sway jurors in one way, towards a conclusion not even supported by the professional witness, or even by proven evidence.
Today, testimonies are not untouchable or sacrosanct because many trial attorneys rely on a method of argument that will destroy testimonial value when they see it as a block to winning the case. Thus ethics should come to the fore and solve one the thorniest issues for lawyering today. The debate goes on, but there should be one question that is always kept top of mind.
It is of course the welfare of the child or children involved in a case. Psychologists can be there to see what things should or should not be mentioned in front of them. A court case can add to the trauma, and may be instrumental in making it a permanent and injurious memory that will forever change the way a child views the world.
Psychologists, legal experts, and sociologists are wondering if the testimonies of experts might not be affecting legal cases in a negative way. They need to know if things like expert witness child abuse is able to deliver relevant and meaningful things to the judicial process. Mostly, they are concerned that lawyers will not use it just for winning a case.
Experts take the stand as representatives of their profession to clarify certain issues related to their field. This part of the court process is also when people like forensics specialists and MEs are given their time to lay out precise details related to the case, the better for the jury to make a good and just judgment. This practice has come to encompass anyone with the relevant professional training.
Law courts will hear out professional witnesses for necessary support for judgments that will be given. The judges and jurors are made to decide whether the testimony is good enough, but counselors can subjectify it with rhetorical arguments. They can therefore make the testimony worthless.
For child abuse, there are so many fine points to any one jury process that can be used any which way by a lawyer. For the more coldblooded, wrecking reputations by implication, using expert testimony to convince jurors of guilt, and other similar methods may be the way to win a case. But the professionals who are called in to testify are calling foul.
Ethical concerns should have a solid base, something the law may require on specific points and the definitions thereof. If the current outcry for more ethical integrity for expert testimony in cases like these is heard and acted on, the definitions should have prejudicial values taken out. This will enable the experts to testify without any fear that they are being used as pawns for legal debate.
Whatever decisions are made in this regard, the fact remains that expert witnesses should not be used indiscriminately. Testifying limits the things a psychologist, say, can provide a case in terms of more objective views. In cross examinations, the attorney may ask any question that can sway jurors in one way, towards a conclusion not even supported by the professional witness, or even by proven evidence.
Today, testimonies are not untouchable or sacrosanct because many trial attorneys rely on a method of argument that will destroy testimonial value when they see it as a block to winning the case. Thus ethics should come to the fore and solve one the thorniest issues for lawyering today. The debate goes on, but there should be one question that is always kept top of mind.
It is of course the welfare of the child or children involved in a case. Psychologists can be there to see what things should or should not be mentioned in front of them. A court case can add to the trauma, and may be instrumental in making it a permanent and injurious memory that will forever change the way a child views the world.
About the Author:
When you are in need of some advice from an expert witness child abuse case, the best thing you can do is to take a look at our website. Follow the link and view the page on http://safechild.org/sherryll-kraizer-phd/witness.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire