www.forensicmed.co.uk
Menu
Please wait...

giving evidence in court

 

Detail from The Worship of Baccus, George Cruikshank (1864)

Source: Jonathan Goodlife

 

  • Her Majesty's Court Service - being a witness guidance & guidance for prosecution witnesses
  • General Medical Council guidance for expert witnesses
    • giving evidence in court
  • Scottish Courts - information for witnesses
  • The Academy of Experts
  • The Expert Witness Institute
  • The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Disclosure Manual
  • British Medical Association - medicolegal guidance
  • Medical Protection Society guidance
  • The Law Society
  • Tips on giving evidence in court
  • expert witness links (Delicious)
  • How to give evidence in court (general advice)
  • Going to court as a witness (DirectGov)
  • Giving evidence in court (Health and Safety Executive - HSE)
  • Giving evidence (Department of Justice, Victoria Australia)
  • the lighter side of the law
  • courtroom quotations

the CPS and Crown Court

 

forensic evidence in court (Wellcome Collection)

 

Dr Milton Helpern on partisan medical experts

 

They lose their scientific objectivity and throw professional caution to the winds, and get all involved in playing the game of 'Win With This Witness', or This Witness Wants to Win'. Some of them become even more partisan. They get so engrossed in the outcome of the case and playing the game that they forget they are doctors. They spew forth a bunch of garbage in the most scientific prose that is pure, unadulterated medical horse manure.

 

Regrettably, some of the worst offenders are my own colleagues in pathology. They seem to feel that since they have the final look, this gives them a biblical right to the final word; so they make the most of it.

 

Another paradox is that the worst offenders are the hospital pathologists. Colorful old Charles Norris, the first Medical Examiner of New York City, used to call them 'pissologists'. These fellows do a bang-up job on running urinalyses, but they have absolutely no experience with the problems of forensic medicine. Still, they come into court and be completely positive and dogmatic on matters that are completely outside the area of reasonable medical certainty.

 

They are doubly dangerous because they express their opinions in such polished, sonorous tones of complete confidence that the jury sits back and says: 'Now here's a man we can believe. That other fellow who said he couldn't be sure sounded pretty wishy-washy; so I guess we can safely forget all about his opinion'. Hell, the guy who says he can't be sure is the one who is staying within the bounds of recognized medical knowledge, while the 'pissologist' is the charlatan.... The law demands more than medicine can honestly give.

Dr Milton Helpern in 'Where death delights', Marshall Hout 1967 pp. 118-119

medicine and the politics of the English Inquest

 

 

Campaign against cuts in Legal Aid
Tweets by @forensicmed

 

Current Practice in Forensic Medicine, Gall J, Payne-James J (Ed), Wiley Blackwell 2011

Read a sample chapter here ... (Expert evidence and health professionals)

'Look inside' this book here ...

Buy this book here ...

Desktop site
To Top
© 2015 www.forensicmed.co.uk All rights reserved.
Powered by Webnode
  • Homepage
  • pathology
    • general pathology
    • inflammation and sepsis
    • autopsy
      • virtual autopsy
    • mechanisms of death
    • post mortem interval
    • wounds
      • epidemiology
      • wound documentation
        • wound imaging
      • wound healing
      • complications of wound healing
      • wound vitality
      • blunt force trauma
        • bruises
          • ageing bruising
          • patterns of bruising in child abuse
          • microscopy of bruises
        • abrasions
        • lacerations
        • patterns
          • falls
          • road traffic collisions
      • sharp force trauma
        • slash wounds
        • stab wounds
        • glass wounds
        • chopping wounds
        • patterns of sharp force trauma
      • firearms
        • ballistics
        • gunshot wounds - rifled weapons
        • gunshot wounds - smooth bore weapons
        • Explosions and blast-related injuries
      • burns
        • assessment of burns
        • burn area
        • chemical and electrical burns
        • pathophysiology of burns
      • bitemarks
      • artefact and mimics
    • head injury
      • circumstances of head injury
      • site of injury
      • skull fracture
      • meningeal haemorrhage
      • brain injury
      • intra-cerebral haemorrhage
      • difuse brain injury
      • causes of death
      • traumatic basal subarachnoid haemorrhage
    • fire deaths
      • aims of pathological investigation
      • identification of the deceased
      • was deceased alive or dead at the time of the fire?
      • why couldn't the deceased escape the fire?
      • cause of death in fires
      • manner of death in a fire
      • fire destruction of bodies
    • bodies recovered from water
    • sudden cardiac death
      • cardiac anatomy and physiology revision
      • Virtual cardiovascular microscopy
      • sudden cardiac death and coronary artery disease
      • risks and triggers
      • emotion and sudden cardiac death
      • left ventricular hypertrophy
      • myocardial fibrosis
      • alcohol and sudden cardiac death
      • cardiac concussion
      • homicide by heart attack
      • managing sudden death in hospital
    • pressure to the neck
    • CPR-related rib fractures in adults
    • pathophysiology of heat-related illness and death
    • paediatric forensic pathology
      • retinal haemorrhages
    • decision making
    • mistakes
    • tutorials
  • science
    • forensic science
    • entomology
    • odontology
    • anthropology
    • toxicology
      • alcohol
      • opiates
      • cocaine
      • post mortem biochemistry
      • toxicology in history
  • literature
  • careers
    • training in the UK
    • UK training places
    • training outside the UK
  • history
  • law
    • causation in law
    • law of evidence
    • regulation of doctors
    • giving evidence in court
    • law relating to wounding
      • offensive weapons legislation
      • law relating to firearms
    • ethics
  • links
    • online anatomy resources
  • books
    • new reviews