Overcoming Obstacles & Objections To Expert Opinion Testimony

To understand the law relating to expert witnesses, one must first understand the law relating to witnesses generally and the special treatment afforded those with special expertise. For most witnesses, courts want the same thing that Joe Friday wanted on the "Dragnet" television series: "Just the facts, Ma'am!" Fearing that any departure from precise factual observations would usurp the jury's role in evaluating the evidence, courts have traditionally prohibited lay witnesses from offering their opinions on the evidence or departing, even to the slightest degree, from a purely factual recitation of events which the witness personally observed. Throughout most of American legal history, ordinary citizens who dared to take the witness stand needed three things -- the capacity to observe, to remember and to relate.