From 2005 to 2015 this blog presented news items and resources relating to trial advocacy and the legal system, with a focus on Washington State. It was developed to support the Trial Advocacy Program at the University of Washington School of Law, but broadened to include appellate practice, the courts, access to justice, and related topics.
It is no longer active.
As Jay Mehring's case against Spokane and the city's chief of police for defamation and wrongful termination approaches its trial date, the judge says she is "sick of" the attorneys' behavior:
Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O'Connor had choice words Thursday for attorneys on both sides of the Jay Mehring civil case.
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She ordered attorneys Bob Dunn and Ellen O'Hara to appear before her this afternoon "no matter what" with an agreed upon statement in the case and a list of issues that are in dispute and issues that aren't.
She threatened to hold the lawyers in contempt if they weren't able to do so "because I am sick of this."
The judge also warned that she would have no time to look at motions for reconsideration, "so assume that they're all going to be denied."
* * *
The judge also picked up a report she said had been submitted that morning in violation of a previous order.
"See this? The one I got today? In the waste basket!" she said, holding up the waste basket.
Just today I was about to give a presentation in a classroom when I discovered that my PowerPoint file was not in the folder where I thought I'd saved it. Fortunately I found it, and it was just a small classroom talk, not a million-dollar trial, but the two minutes when I wasn't sure where the darn slides had gone gave me a taste of what these articles (and podcast) are talking about.
DNA identification, economic estimates of damages, psychiatric evidence of competence to stand trial, engineers' testimony about product defects—there's a lot of scientific testimony in today's courtrooms. How can judges—who are not statisticians, geneticists, economists, epidemiologists, engineers, or psychiatrists—intelligently manage this flood of information?
This book would be useful to anyone wanting an introduction to scientific evidence. Chapters include:
The Admissibility of Expert Testimony
How Science Works
Reference Guide on Forensic Identification Expertise
Reference Guide on DNA Identification Evidence
Reference Guide on Statistics
Reference Guide on Multiple Regression
Reference Guide on Survey Research
Reference Guide on Estimation of Economic Damages
Reference Guide on Exposure Science
Reference Guide on Epidemiology
Reference Guide on Toxicology
Reference Guide on Medical Testimony
Reference Guide on Neuroscience
Reference Guide on Mental Health Evidence
Reference Guide on Engineering
The book is available for free reading online; you can also download a PDF of any chapter or of the whole book. And the library will soon order it in paper.