Will Courtroom Bias Cost You Your Next Case? (1.0 hour MCLE Bias credits)

Courtroom bias is a prevalent problem. Bias exists in all people. The ability to recognize your biases and the biases of your opponent can save or lose your case.

Black’s Law Dictionary Ninth Edition identifies 4 types of bias in the courtroom.

• Actual bias
• Advocate’s bias
• Implied bis
• Judicial bias

Not on the list of biases is “Expert Witness Bias.” As a legal professional a responsibility is to recognize whether your expert witness is succumbing to unconscious or conscious biases that will be exposed in deposition or trial. We all have biases, learn to overcome yours and deliver a foolproof testimony.

According to the 2009 report from the National Academy of Sciences, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States, bias is pervasive in forensic science. Handwriting examination, fingerprint analysis, tool marks, bite marks and other disciplines requiring subjective interpretation of evidence were the focus of laboratory bias.

Questioned document examiners, and all forensic analysts, must take care to avoid contextual bias by focusing strictly on the aspects of the case that are important to them. The attorney is an advocate for their client. The questioned document examiner is an advocate for the evidence.

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After this seminar you will:

• Effectively recognize and reduce your biases.
• Know how to counter the biases of the opposition.
• Determine whether your forensic examiner’s report is biased.
• Recognize the e?ects of bias on forensic examiners’ opinions.
• Make implicit biases work in your favor.
• Learn how biases impact the jury’s perspective.