Author Description

This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of legal issues, case law and statutory provisions that relate to reports written by, an evidence given by, experts. The volume contains a discussion of the roles that forensic experts can undertake, followed by a detailed exposition of the law which governs the reception of expert evidence in the courts. The common law and statutory exclusionary rules of opinion evidence are fully considered, in an international context, as are the judicial discretion to exclude expert evidence, procedural requirements for its admission, grounds of appeal as a result of admissibility decisions and courtroom presentation techniques in relation to expert evidence in the form of opinion and fact. The legal implications of evidence concerning financial issues, valuation matters, psychological syndromes, victim and offender profiling, PTSD and DNA profiling, document analysis and fingerprinting are considered. Issues such as the expert's obligation to maintain client confidentiality, the role of privilege, the obligations of experts to comply with subpoenas ad fee arrangements are also examined. The third edition also incorporates new chapters on the legal issues relating to accounting evidence, valuation evidence, as well as profiling evidence and anthropology evidence. In addition, relevant rules of court and codes of conduct are included.