Professor Nigel Eastman
Emeritus Professor of Law and Ethics in Psychiatry at St George's University of London
At this exciting meeting, the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Academy of Forensic Sciences will bring together a top faculty of prominent speakers to look at the source of partiality in different forensic disciplines, addressing bias in the individual and in the criminal justice system.
Speakers include best-selling author of "Unnatural causes", Dr Richard Shepherd, Sir Charles Declan Morgan PC QC, Jo Millington, Professor Nigel Eastman, and more. Scroll down for more information about the programme and faculty.
Sources and Expression of Expert Witness Bias
The expert witness practice of forensic doctors and scientists is under increasing scrutiny, by both the courts and professional bodies.
Appraisal of expert witness practice must address not only technical competence, including demonstrating evidence of a real understanding of the interface between medicine or science and law, but also ethical probity. And the avoidance of bias represents the greatest technical and ethical challenge.
Bias can arise from sources ‘within’ the expert, including via ‘cognitive bias and heuristics’, or as an inherent reflection of the adversarial legal system itself; and can be expressed throughout the method of assessment, report drafting and giving of oral evidence.
The conference will define and address bias across a range of forensic medicine and science disciplines, presented by a range of distinguished practitioners; in order to identify sources and routes to expression that are both ‘generic’ to all expert witness practice and specific to particular medical and scientific disciplines. And the programme will end with a senior judicial commentary on bias in expert evidence, as well as on judicial bias, as viewed from the bench.
Emeritus Professor of Law and Ethics in Psychiatry at St George's University of London
Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
Forensic Pathologist and best-selling author of "Unnatural causes"
Forensic Scientist and Director, Millington Hingley Ltd.
Professor Nigel Eastman, Emeritus Professor of Law and Ethics in Psychiatry, St George's University of London
Jo Millington,Forensic Scientist and Director, Millington Hingley Ltd.
Professor Denise Syndercombe-Court
Dr Richard Shepherd, Forensic Pathologist
Dr Linda Teebay, Paediatrician and Consultant Forensic & Legal Medicine
Sir Charles Declan Morgan PC QC, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole St, Marylebone, London, W1G 0AE, United Kingdom