Overview
There is a line of thought that expert witnesses are merely hired guns who will say anything to get paid a large fee. You have read about a couple of instances. In the Bombardiere case. the court held that the testimony of the expert witness could not be admitted. Many forensic scientists questioned the ethics of the former Maryland Chief Medical Examiner who testified as a defense expert witness in the Derek Chauvin murder trial of the death of George Floyd.
(1) Identify the various ethical issues in the Bombardiere and Chauvin cases? (2) How are the issues similar? (3) How are they different? (4) What potential actions could be imposed upon on these witnesses and why? (5) Are there any ethical/professional standards that do or should apply to expert witnesses? (6) What is the range of remedies/penalties that could/should be imposed on an expert whose conduct appears to be unethical? Identify at least one profession (other than the American Bar Association standards that are apply to attorneys using expert witnesses) that currently has specific professional standards that apply to an expert witness and policies/procedures/sanctions that could be imposed on a person in that the profession who violated the standards. (If citing the medical profession, it is necessary to discuss a specialty within the profession.)