Timothy M. Tippins The Fallibility of Expertise: A Call for Judicial Skepticism
In his Matrimonial Practice column, Timothy M. Tippins uses the so-called "expertise" that we've seen almost daily during the pandemic to illustrate the point that expert utterances need to be assessed with a massive measure of skepticism. Specifically, forensic testimony in custody trials is one that is truly ripe for intense and skeptical judicial scrutiny.
February 05, 2021 at 12:30 PM
11 minute read
If ever we needed a lesson in the fallibility of expertise, the past year has rendered it in spades. As Americans struggled to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, the public performance of the "experts"—the ones prancing to the podium, not the ones working quietly in their labs to develop life-saving vaccines—have ranged from inconsistent to disingenuous, with a healthy dose of hubris thrown in for good measure. For those disposed to defer to authority, it has been a sobering slog. Yet within the morass of misinformation reposes an important message for lawyers and judges who are called upon to assess the reliability of expertise in the courtroom: Expert utterances need to be assessed with a massive measure of skepticism.
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