New Peer Reviewed Edition Of Reference Manual On Scientific Evidence For Judges Released

On September 28, 2011, the National Research Council released the long-awaited third edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (the "Manual"). The third edition of the Manual is a joint publication of the Federal Judicial Center, which is the research and educational arm of the federal judges, and the National Academies, an organization of America's foremost scientists, engineers and doctors. Developed to guide judges as they encounter scientific evidence at trials, it updates an edition published in 2000 by the Federal Judicial Center and includes new chapters, called reference guides, on neuroscience, exposure science, mental health and forensic science and a completely revised chapter on engineering.

For the first time, the new edition was rigorously peer reviewed in accordance with the procedures of the National Research Council. According to its charter, the National Research Council enlists the nation's top scientists, engineers and other experts to provide advice on significant matters of science, technology and medicine. This edition has the National Academies' seal of approval as a fair and accurate report on the science in each of the areas of potential legal evidence addressed in this version of the Manual and, as a result, should be given considerable weight by judges and litigants.

The first edition of the Manual was published by the Federal Judicial Center in 1994 soon after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1973), which instructed trial judges to act as "gatekeepers" in determining whether the testimony of an expert offered by a party in the case should be admitted in view of the expert's scientific reasoning and methodology. The Federal Judicial Center published a second edition in 2000 in the wake of the Supreme Court's decisions in General Electric Co. v. Joiner, 522 U.S. 136 (1997) and Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137 (1999). The disputed issue in all three cases was causation. Thus, each edition of the Manual addresses causation in the broad sense and has application to any case where scientific evidence is involved. The third edition of the Manual should have even more significance than the first two editions to cases with such causation issues because of the leadership of the National Academies in determining the content of the reference guides.

Many of the reference guides are coauthored by one or more scientists and someone from...

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