[suzzer99]

I just to work for one of the leading expert witnesses in the country. Expert witnesses are just advocates, hired by a client, who know how to throw fancy words around in a soothing, confident manner that makes the listener feel smart.

[TimTheTinker]

That's a rather cynical take.

An abuse of a form doesn't invalidate that form's validity.

I would be logically incoherent to assert that all hamburgers are crap on the basis of having worked at McDonalds for years.

[suzzer99]

It's not abuse of the form. It is the form.

Nobody has a career as an expert witness for long if they go against a client's wishes. There is no such thing as an impartial expert witness in the current system. They're all hired by one side or the other. They're basically subject-matter expert lawyers.

[TimTheTinker]

> It's not abuse of the form. It is the form.

> There is no such thing as an impartial expert witness in the current system

You're saying a form is bad because it doesn't line up with how it ought to be (you said "impartial"). But in saying so, you imply there is an ought. That is the real form (what it ought to be): an impartial expert witness.

When a form only presently exists in an abuse thereof, that doesn't necessarily invalidate the form as a worthy pursuit.

History can tell us whether such a form is worth pursuing. Expert witnesses in the US have been more or less impartial in the past. Communism has never been achieved, and its pursuit has never led to well-being of the people. Both are "ideal forms" in a philosophical sense, but history bears out which is worth pursuing and practically achievable.

So my take is that what's needed is reform of expert testimony through congressional law, including independent review of DAs, to ensure they prosecute expert witnesses who failed a legal impartiality test.

[mike_hearn]

Expert witnesses are already required to be impartial. There's currently an inquiry in the UK over a massive miscarriage of justice caused by an expert witness going rogue and letting prosecutors put words in his mouth, etc. A big part of the scandal is that prosecutors were meant to inform him of his legal duty to be neutral and share all the facts, but they didn't, so now he's claiming he didn't realize he was required to share all relevant facts including those negative for the prosecution.

[TimTheTinker]

There's a difference between a requirement and its enforcement.

I'm arguing for better enforcement via law, to ensure witnesses are either impartial or prosecuted for impartiality.

If partial witnesses aren't being prosecuted, then launch an inquiry and do a causal chain analysis. It's bound to turn up a root problem that is solvable.

[mike_hearn]

This is a common philosophical/ideological difference.

The left tend to argue that impartial people exist, and that they are numerous/easy to find.

The right tend to argue that there's no such thing as an impartial person, that you can get people who start out partial and do their best to be fair (e.g. judges) but it takes constantly training, reinforcements and incentives to do that and there's always the danger of slipping back. You definitely can't assume it.

The adversarial court system is based on the right-leaning belief: although expert witnesses are told to be impartial, the system doesn't assume this is enough and so witnesses are called by one side and cross-examined by the other. The lawyer's job is to sniff out any signs of bias or incompetence.