Views By Two Series
“Improving Expert Evidence:
Views from the University and the Courtroom”
featuring
Jennifer L. Keller, J.D. &
Professor William C. Thompson
Please join us for the third event in our 2015-2016 Views By Two series. Views By Two pairs a Center researcher with a prestigious practitioner to discuss hot topics in the field of psychology and law. By providing both a researcher and practitioner viewpoint, we hope to start a dialogue that will bridge the gap between scientific research and policy.
This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments and wine will be served during a reception following the event.
Update: MCLE credit will be offered.
RSVP here by May 1!
Date: May 2, 2016
Time: 5:30-7:00pm
Location:
University of California, Irvine Campus; Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway building, room 1517 (#214 on campus map). For an interactive map of the parking structure and venue, click here. Parking is available in the Social Sciences Parking Structure. A parking attendant will be available until 6pm at the Campus Drive entrance.
Abstract:
The legal system relies heavily on expert witnesses to help courts and jurors understand the complex issues that arise in modern litigation. Whether it is the accountants and economists who testify in anti-trust cases or the forensic scientists who testify in criminal cases, experts play a vital and necessary role. But expert evidence has long been controversial. Concerns have frequently been raised about partisanship and bias, about the validity of expert’s methods, and about their ability to communicate effectively with lay jurors.
In this “views-by-two” presentation, an academic psychologist/lawyer (William Thompson) and an experienced civil litigator (Jennifer Keller) will discuss various proposals for improving the quality and trustworthiness of expert evidence. The discussion will focus on three major topics:
- Partisanship and Bias—How serious is this problem? How might it be addressed? Would it be practical to reduce bias by taking measures such as: (a) blinding experts to the party that hired them; (b) creating procedures for peer-review of expert’s testimony and reports; (c) requiring experts to attempt to reach consensus through procedures such as “hot-tubbing.”
- Validation and Gatekeeping—How well are courts doing at assessing the validity of expert evidence? Should judges do more to protect jurors from being misled by problematic expert evidence? Are our current legal standards for admissibility of expert evidence working properly, or do they need to be re-examined?
- Presentation of Conclusions—How should experts present scientific or technical conclusions? What does research tell us about the kinds of expert testimony jurors understand and misunderstand? Should experts be allowed to present statistical or mathematical estimates? What can judges and lawyers do to assure that scientific evidence is understood?
The presenters will consider academic studies and proposals in light of practical experience as they look for pathways toward improvement of current practices.
Speaker Biographies:
Jennifer L. Keller. J.D. – Business Trial Lawyer and Partner, Keller Rackauckas LLP
Formerly a top criminal defense lawyer, Jennifer L. Keller made a transition during the past 15 years to business litigation. She has won all of her civil trials, including the widely-followed 2011 retrial of Mattel v. MGA, aka “Barbie v. Bratz.” Keller came on board as lead counsel two weeks before the four-month retrial began in the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and won a $309M judgment for MGA. The Los Angeles Times called it “a stunning reversal of litigation fortune.” In an unrelated 2009 case Keller won a $350 million jury verdict. In between those two civil trials she gained an acquittal for a client facing a life sentence in a so-called “shaken baby case.” Jennifer won a California Lawyer Magazine CLAY Award (California Attorneys of the Year) for litigation in 2012. She is listed in “The Best Lawyers In America;” Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Lawyers in America;” has been chosen repeatedly for the L.A. & San Francisco Daily Journals’ “Top 100 Lawyers in California;” and is routinely selected by Los Angeles Magazine’s Super Lawyers as one of the Top 50 lawyers in Orange County and Top 50 Women Lawyers in Southern California. The Orange County Trial Lawyers named her as both its Business Litigation Attorney of the Year (2010) and Criminal Defense Attorney of the Year (2000). She is a former President of the Orange County Bar Association. Currently she is co-counsel with John Keker and Elliot Peters in the defense of Standard & Poors, in United States v. The McGraw-Hill Companies; has just filed the state court reprise of the trade-secret portion of MGA v. Mattel, for which she will again be lead counsel; and is preparing to retry (also as lead counsel) a billion-dollar real estate dispute tried the first time by Bingham McCutcheon. Jennifer is a Trustee of Chapman University and the UC Hastings Foundation, and serves on the Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League of Orange County and Long Beach. A founding fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, she is a past winner of the State Bar President’s Wiley Manuel Award for Pro Bono Service. Jennifer also served as an attorney representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council. Jennifer graduated from UC Berkeley and UC Hastings. Her nine-attorney firm Keller Rackauckas LLP is among the premier white-collar and complex litigation boutiques in Southern California.
William C. Thompson, Ph.D., J.D. – Professor of Criminology, Law, and Society and Psychology & Social Behavior and Law
Dr. Thompson is interested in human factors associated with forensic science evidence, including contextual and cognitive bias in forensic analysis and the commuication of scientific findings to lawyers and juries. He has written about strengths and limitations of various types of forensic science evidence, particularly DNA evidence, and about the ability of lay juries to evaluate evidence. Dr. Thompson’s work is multidisciplinary, it involves law, psychology, various areas of biology (particularly genetics and molecular biology), and statistics.
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