Science can often be more complicated and nuanced than we might like. Back in 1897, the Indiana legislature attempted to establish that π was equal to 3.2.[1] Sure, that was simpler and easier to use in calculations, but also wrong. The irreducible fact is that π is an irrational number, and Indiana’s attempt to
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Purging Compurgation
“You could file briefs on a napkin right now and get it granted.”
Alan Lange & Tom Dawson, Kings of Torts 87 (2d ed. 2010) (quoting convicted former lawyer, Zach Scruggs)
Back in the 1980s, I started to see expert witnesses stray into the business of psychoanalysis of corporate defendants. Perhaps it took place earlier;…
A Citation for Jurs & DeVito’s Unlawful U-Turn
Antic proposals abound in the legal analysis of expert witness opinion evidence. In the courtroom, the standards for admitting or excluding such evidence are found in judicial decisions or in statutes. When legislatures have specified standards for admitting expert witness opinions, courts have a duty to apply the standards to the facts before them. Law…
Grumpy Old Men
This blog is not about politics, although sometimes I have wandered into the political thicket when the events of the day involved scientific and statistical issues.[1] Our current events today do not involve statistical evidence so much as political, moral, and practical judgment. At some point, however, I cannot avoid a sense of responsibility…
IARC’S Fundamental Distinction Between Hazard and Risk – Lost in the Flood
Socrates viewed philosophy as beginning in wonder,[1] but Socrates and his philosophic heirs recognized that philosophy does not get down to business until it starts to clarify the terms of discussion. By the middle of the last century, failure to understand the logic of language replaced wonder as the beginning of philosophy.[2] Even…
The Maestro and Mesothelioma – Wikipedia & False Claims
The Maestro is a biographical film of the late Leonard Bernstein. The film, starring Bradley Cooper as Bernstein, had a limited release before streaming on Netflix. As a work of biography, the film is peculiar in its focus on Bernstein’s sexuality and filandering, while paying virtually no attention to his radical chic politics, or his…
The Proper Study of Mankind
“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man.”[1]
Kristen Ranges recently earned her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law, and her doctorate in Environmental Science and Policy, from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. Ranges’ dissertation…
The Role of Peer Review in Rule 702 and 703 Gatekeeping
“There is no expedient to which man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92)
Some courts appear to duck the real labor of thinking, and the duty to gatekeep expert witness opinions, by deferring to expert witnesses who advert to their…
Collegium Ramazzini & Its Fellows – The Lobby
Back in 1997, Francis Douglas Kelly Liddell, a real scientist in the area of asbestos and disease, had had enough of the insinuations, slanders, and bad science from the minions of Irving John Selikoff.[1] Liddell broke with the norms of science and called out his detractors for what they were doing:
“[A]n anti-asbestos lobby,…
The Dodgy Origins of the Collegium Ramazzini
Or How Irving Selikoff and His Lobby (the Collegium Ramazzini) Fooled the Monsanto Corporation
Anyone who litigates occupational or environmental disease cases has heard of the Collegium Ramazzini. The group is named after a 17th century Italian physician, Bernardino Ramazzini, who is sometimes referred to as the father of occupational medicine.[1] His children have…