Retaining and Working with Expert Witnesses

• Author: Anthony G. Amsterdam/Martin Guggenheim/Randy A. Hertz
• Profession: University Professor and Professor of Law at New York University/Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law/Professor of Clinical Law at NYU School of Law
• Pages: 237-243

237

CHAPTER 11

RETAINING AND

WORKING WITH

EXPERT WITNESSES

§ 11.01 Deciding Whether to Retain an Expert Witness

There are a host of types of expert witnesses that may be useful in a delinquency case.

Some of the most commonly used are:

1. Fingerprint examiners;

2. Ballistics experts;

3. Narcotics and drug experts;

4. A variety of mental health ex perts, including psychiatrist s, psychologists, and neu-

rologists (see §§ 12.08 –12.10 infra);

5. Handwriting ex perts and questioned-document examiners;

6. Arson experts;

7. Shoeprint/tiretreadexperts;

8. Polygraph examiners;

9. Serologists;

10. Forensic pathologists;

11. Hair and fiber examiners;

12. DNA experts;

13. Experts on eyewitness identifications (see, e.g., People v. Santiago, 17 N.Y.3d 661,

672–73, 958 N.E.2d 874, 883–84, 934 N.Y.S.2d 746, 754–55 (2011); State v. Hender-

son, 208 N.J. 208, 283–85, 289, 297–98, 27 A.3d 872, 916–17, 920, 925 (2011)); and

14. Ex perts on the factors that can produce a fa lse confession (see, e.g., People v. B edessie,

19 N.Y.3d 147, 149, 161, 970 N.E.2d 380, 381, 388–89, 947 N.Y.S.2d 357, 358, 365–

66 (2012)).

The list of potential experts is limited only by the reach of counsel’s imagination.

For example, counsel could end up using an automobile accident reconstruction expert

(to explain the sequence of events in a vehicular homicide), an odontologist (to testify

in an identification case that many youths other than the respondent possess gaps in

their teeth that match those observed in the perpetrator), or even an arborist (to testify