There are many ways you can prepare for your role in the project. Our textbook and lectures are a good start. But there are also many resources and experiences that are available to you. You are in charge of preparing yourself for your role, learning about the skills and requirements for your role. You should blog regularly on your project page to show your progress.
If this activity would be helpful for your role for this project, you may want to do this activity and you should blog on your own project page.
If you are choosing this because you are just interested and curious, or as a browse assignment, you can post your comments here.
Project Preparation: Expert Witnesses
Google around and find out what you can about expert witnesses. Who are they? What are they experts in? Where do they work? What is their role in a trial or legal case? What did you find out that was the most interesting? If you had to be an expert, what kind would you want to be? etc.
From what I gather (and judging by the name), an expert witness could be anyone who is highly educated in a particular field that is called into court to help in the understanding of something or to offer their opinion on the case based on their expert knowledge. An expert witness is not just involved in the field they are testifying about (or helping out with). They must specialize in a specific part of the field and have a much greater knowledge about it than the other people within their field.
ATM, Boiler, Meditation, Dowsing (Water Witching / Hidden Things), Wood Utility Pole, and Lottery are some of the more interesting types of experts I found when I was at http://www.experts.com/index.aspx. I didn’t even look too closely at the huge list. This website would be great for anyone who needed an expert in pretty much anything. This website is primarily dedicated to helping people find and expert in a particular field.
What I didn’t realize is that an expert witness does not need to be a testifying witness. They may just be asked to come in by either side to examine evidence or help them out. Expert witnesses provide a lot of great perspective and help people understand. They help convict criminals.
http://www.experts.com/index.aspx
http://ezinearticles.com/?Types-of-Expert-Witnesses-and-Why-Having-a-Specialization-is-Important&id=2422952
There's also a fun little cartoon image at
http://www.stus.com/stus-category.php?cat=PLA&sub=EXP
An expert witness I assumed is someone who has a great deal of knowledge about a very specific topic. These people put a lot of time in gaining education based on this topic.
To prevent a case from turning into a battle between both sides, usually one, if not a few, are brought into court to testify or to at least help out their sides. Expert witnesses are brought into a case during the pre-trial, to give their interpretation of the crime and possibly testify. To qualify as an "expert" their needs to be a lot of education and experience involved in that area, expert witnesses should be able to know their topic inside and out.
There are a lot of different kinds expert witnesses in many different fields. Its actually very interesting to see all of the different types of expert witnesses there are. There are forensic experts, but a certain type of forensic expert, such as accidents, ballistics, chemicals and many, many more. But than these experts specilize in something even more specific in that category. For example an accident forensic expert has his special topic in that category, such as Swimming pool and design expert, traffic crash reconstruction expert, fire investigation expert and those are just to name a few under the accident forensics category! It blows my mind of all the different kinds I find it fasicinating, and wish I had more time to look at every differnt kind to understand it more. The accident forensic experts could be used in a trial such as one dealing with fire, or an accident. It could be helpful for the jury to understand how the fire could have done that certain damage or how much the car impacted the injuries etc.
If I could be an expert witness, I think I would still work in the criminal aspect of it, possibly focusing on serial killers because they interest me so much I think I would be able to handle going through years and years and years of education and experience. This was an interesting topic to look up and I find it very interesting and highly respect expert witnesses due to their long term commitment and dedication. I think it would be very cool to be able to call yoursef an "expert" on something!
http://www.hgexperts.com/listing/Forensic-Expert-Accident-Analysis.asp
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2010/09/09/expert-witness/
A person who provides testimony at a legal proceeding in a form of professional opinions. An expert witness can range from legal, defense, forensic , consulting and more.
An expert witness is usually called in for an opinion related in their field and they must show and give absolute knowledge greater than an average person on that particular field that they are considered to be professionals in.
The expert witness must have the required documents in proving that he or she is a specialized individual on the specific matter that she or he was called In for so the jury may notice that she/he are not any regular witnesses.
I found out that in order to be an expert witness a person has to be experienced, trained, have skills or education. I would expected those individuals to have all of the above. If I were to become an expert at something I would for sure pick a Weapons expert, mainly hand held weapons that are made out of either iron , brass or metal, such as guns and brass knuckles, I am just intrigued about how human kind can invent a variety of things in order to hurt one another.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-expert-witness.htm
I decided to look into the expert witness role, because I wasn’t really sure what they did; I thought I kind of knew, but I wasn’t sure. An expert witness is a person who specializes in a certain field. Expert witnesses are hired by attorneys to testify in court about academic or technical knowledge. In court, they are permitted to state their opinion concerning the technical matters even though they weren’t present at the event. Examples of fields would be: forensic science, finance, psychology, accident reconstruction, medical, etc. You can specialize in pretty much anything. Many of them earn hourly rates based on their experience and availability. Most people that want to be an expert witness will earn a degree, certification, or title. That shows that they are dedicated and know about their field. Expert witnesses are considered an important part of the criminal justice system. They help lawyers prove cases by their experience and knowledge. Expert witnesses don’t have to be an expert witness full-time; its usually a side job. They choose if they want to just work with one attorney or work with several. If I were to become an expert witness, it would have something to do with psychology because that’s my major right now, and that’s where I would have the most knowledge.
http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-i-become-an-expert-witness-consultant.htm http://www.lectlaw.com/def/e066.htm