Questions to Ask a Forensic Expert Witness

Guides May 23, 2020 2m

This short piece appeared in an email sent to our customer base in May 2020. As it is a useful reminder for anyone instructing a forensic services provider (FSP), and helpful to any legal professional, we’ve uploaded it here.

We asked some of our forensic scientists this week their personal advice for legal professionals on how you can really get the most out of them. Here are the highlights of our conversations.

Three Questions you should be asking your expert:

Has a full statement been written or just a streamlined forensic report (SFR) or abbreviated statement? If this is the case the report will lack the detail of the examination which has been done and how the prosecution scientist has interpreted the results.
Has all the background information been considered by the prosecution scientist in forming their conclusion? This information could have a big impact on the significance of the evidence and the conclusion which has been reached.
Is the conclusion and stated significance of the evidence backed up by what is said in the case notes?

Two things you can do to help your expert:

Provide as much background information as possible including all statements relating to arrest of suspects and recovery of exhibits and control samples. Quite often seemingly irrelevant information can have a big impact on the interpretation of the results. Provide as much information from the client as possible. These five points combined from our experts will help you get you what you need.
To find out more about services offered by Forensic Access fill-in our online contact form or Tel: 01235 774870 to speak with our team.