The Admissibility of Expert Witnesses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

The Admissibility of Expert Witnesses - Essay Example The battle of dueling experts has become somewhat counterproductive, with the reputations and persuasiveness of the experts involved becoming more important than the objective evidence they can provide. It is now possible to join The Society of Expert Witnesses in the UK. The motto of the organization, quisque ad praestantiam nitens is, ironically, translated with a lack of expertise to "each towards excellence striving" - when "each striving towards excellence" is surely the correct wording in modern English. The Society was only founded in 1995, but the Latin motto shows that it is attempting to suggest that it is somehow an established part of the legal system rather than a relative newcomer. Of course brevity of existence is no judgment of quality, but the attempt to create the sense of history that does not exist perhaps is. The definition of an expert witness has gone through a long development. Formal education in a subject is not necessarily needed, as was established as early as R. v. Silverlock (1894), in which a solicitor who had studied handwriting for more than ten years was accepted as an expert even though he had no formal training in the subject. R. V. Robb (1991) established a similar principle and qualified it through saying that the finder of fact (Judge or Jury) should be the one that decides how much weight to give to it. Thus the degree of "expertise" (or otherwise) shown by the expert witness should be decided by the finder of fact. The Society gives a succinct description of both expert and expert witness on its welcome page on the Internet. While these are not formal definitions found within the law, they are at least a starting point for the consideration of contributors to the trial whose role is somewhat uncertain. There is no comprehensive definition of "expert witness", so the Society may well be a help in studying such: An expert is anyone with knowledge or experience of a particular field of discipline beyond what is expected of a layman. An expert witness is an expert who makes his or her knowledge available to a court (or other judicial or quasi-judicial body) to help it understand the issues of a case and reach a sound and just decision. 1 The definition of expert would seem to be extraordinarily broad, and would include large segments of the population within an increasingly specialized society. No mention is made of educational qualifications, let alone the graduate degrees that might be expected for one who calls herself an expert. The Society seems to be attempting to have as broad a definition as possible for "expert", which is logical as its first listed aim is to assist "members in running their expert witness business by any suitable means."2 The fact that being an expert witness can now become a full time source of self-employment may be starkly contrasted to the early days of expert witnesses in the early to mid Twentieth Century, when they were experts within their fields (often scientific or forensic in

Human Resource Strategy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Human Resource Strategy - Case Study Example This company is a worker co-op. It is one of the most exemplary companies when it comes to implementation of best practice strategies. This is because all the employees within the organisation are part owners of the organisation. The organisation focuses on addressing all their needs whether in the reward section or elsewhere. On the other hand, the employees pay back these efforts through commitment and best performance. Best practice has formed one of the organisation's key strengths. John Lewis partnership has made sure that training is part of its human resource and development efforts. This is because it realises the value of this best practice strategy. Pfeffer and Velga (1999) explain the importance of training and development of skills within any organisation. A company that takes its employees through training solidifies their contribution to the company. This is because such employees get equipped with the ability to make decisions in their work. On top of this, such employees have high levels of initiative and will try their utmost best to improve their organisational contribution. Skill development is a characteristic part of the John Lewis Partnership because employees who feel the need to improve their skills are given opportunities to do so through training schemes. Youndt et al (1996) emphasise that training is one of the most fundamental aspects of best... They claim that no amount of training will contribute towards organisational development if employees are not granted the permission to practice those acquired skills. This means that an organisation should try its best to grant work autonomy to its employees and to empower them through training. John Lewis has achieved this very well. In other retail companies, line managers are given minimal responsibilities. Most of them are expected to consult with higher authorities in order to decide on issues. However, the company under study has eliminated that problem by training those members of staff (so that they can have necessary skills) and then allowing them to make independent decisions. They believe that this is a form of investment into human capital since most of these employees feel valued. According to the Classical and Human relations approach, an organisation's structure and operation are affected by certain situational factors such as technology, size and environment. However best practice advocates like Burnes (2000) came up with a contingency theory. He believes that a reward system within any company can affect the way it operates or how it is structured. Pfeffer (1994) believes that best practice companies should have a structure that places staff members into groups. Those groups should be such that they have the ability to make their own decisions. Another aspect of best practise firms is that they ought to have reward systems that are compact in nature. This implies that there should be minimal differences between different members of staff so that most employees within the organisation operate in a relatively independent manner with the ability to make their own decisions. John Lewis' strategic capability in this aspect of structure is