Clinical and Scientific Expert Witness Bias: Sources and Expression

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.