Benchbook in the Behavioral Sciences

Demosthenes Lorandos and Terence W. Campbell

Every day, thousands of judges, attorneys, and court personnel have to deal with experts in the behavioral sciences. Expert testimony from behavioral scientists (psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers) is the fastest growing area of expertise in American courts.

The U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Daubert, Joiner, and Kumho Tire have profoundly altered the rules of evidence regarding expert testimony. Recent research demonstrates that the judges, attorneys, and court personnel required to implement those changes have little understanding of how to do this when dealing with the behavioral sciences. The Federal Rules of Evidence have just been amended to reflect the changes wrought by the Daubert, Joiner, Kumho Tire trilogy. And yet there are no guidelines, practice books, or judicial decision-making manuals that even remotely speak to "gatekeeping" responsibilities with the behavioral sciences.

Lorandos and Campbell provide immediate access to authoritative information and immediate decision-making tools for judges, attorneys, and court personnel. The book is designed to provide basic data for decision making and to integrate smoothly into an online seminar for trial court judges and court personnel. It is also a comprehensive text with immediate utility as a decision-making tool. Extensively researched in law and the sciences, Benchbook in the Behavioral Sciences provides up-to-date legal and scientific data to aid judges, attorneys, and court personnel in their daily decision-making with expert reports and testimony.

View table of contents and introductory material.

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