Burgy has a point about good and bad lawyers.
I work for lawyers as an expert witness so I am aware of this first
hand. Nevertheless, good and bad lawyers will make points any way that
they can ("Lawyers hit below the belt." was the counsel a good
attorney gave me when advising an innocent and idealistic expert (me)
about caution.) The verdict, decided by uneducated lay people, is the
more important than truth in many if not most cases.
Being in the legal process has been a fascinating and sometimes
frightening look into something outside science. I found a
Ph.D. physicist who had been a professor for over thirty years who had
a stunning misunderstanding of Newton's laws, or that linear and
angular momentum were conserved separately but had been merrily
selling his services for many years.
One of my favorite quotes comes from a colleague responding to my
recitation of the overwhelming evidence in a case I was working on
(and my disgust that this would be going to trial). His comment: "Now
Joel---don't get overconfident based on the facts."
A very relevant question regarding the legal enterprise and our
current discussion is whether Phillip Johnson could be qualified in a
court of law as an expert witness regarding the field of evolution
despite the notoriously low standards for qualification of expert
witnesses. I defer to legal experts but the answer is most probably
not.
> As one who has a lawyer in the family (my daughter), I'm hoping this was
> a quip.
>
> The fact that there are "good" and "bad"lawyers is a fact.
>
> The fact that lawyers are an easy target for jokes is also a fact.
>
> The implication that being a lawyer (or a biologist, or an accountant,
> ... .) makes one part of a lower life form is noy agreed to. At least not
> by me.
>
> Burgy (John Burgeson)
>
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Joel W. Cannon | (724)223-6146
Physics Department |
Washington and Jefferson College |
Washington, PA 15301 |
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