Using Experts’ Casework Demographics to Evaluate Expert Witness Credibility: An Empirical Case Study of the 1970-2020 Legal Casework of Elizabeth F. Loftus, Ph.D.

Abstract

Evidentiary admission of rigorous empirical demographic analysis of expert witnesses’ prior legal casework and statements about their work as expert witnesses can assist fact finders in evaluating experts’ credibility. This data can tend to prove or disprove whether an expert’s reputation for credibility and competency in his field of academic or clinical work, which is often established through recitation of awards and professional appointments, is congruent with prior fact finders’ and courts’ assessments of the expert’s credibility and competency in his prior work as an expert witness. This article provides attorneys with a simple approach to gather, analyze, and present empirical expert casework demographics, using as an exemplar an empirical analysis of 50 years of legal casework of one expert witness, experimental psychologist Elizabeth F. Loftus, Ph.D.

Keywords: credibility, expert witness, falsely accused, false memory, recovered memory, sex crimes