A place to ask questions and add to probative and informative discussions associated with the various aspects of the field of fire investigation. -- FORUM RULES---BE CIVIL AND NO NAME CALLING, NO BELITTLING, NO BERATING, NO DENIGRATING others. Postings in violation of these rules can be removed or editted to remove the offending remarks at the discretion of the moderators and/or site administrator.
Re: Back to basics – testing your hypothesis.
Posted by:
Gerald Hurst (IP Logged)
Date: January 22, 2007 04:35PM
No.
The unanswerable question is what is meant by "reasonable doubt." No one has ever been able to quantify this concept and thus we leave the determination to the instincts of the finder of facts.
The best we can do is provide the finder of fact with an accurate assesment of the probative value of the technical evidence.
Where the FI industry continues to fail is in the presentation of weak evidence with enough spin to make it appear credible. If the Daubert rule were really effective, this would would not happen so frequently.
Unfortunately, the courts are run by laymen who rarely understand the technical matters they are called upon to regulate.