Wednesday, December 10, 2003

The Scientific American on Daubert

A reader draws to our attention a two-page article on Daubert in December's Scientific American, entitled "Science v. Law: A Decade-Old Rule on Scientific Evidence Comes Under Fire." The gist: Daubert's defenders say it keeps bad science out of the courtroom, but its detractors say good science suffers too.
Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.