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DewDiligence

10/23/11 2:31 PM

#129160 RE: oldberkeley #129158

Along with your info about a Special Master, this also answers the question that Marthambles and I asked regarding a Judge's technical/scientific expertise in this kind of case.

Agreed.
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Biowatch

10/23/11 5:05 PM

#129168 RE: oldberkeley #129158

a Judge's technical/scientific expertise



Often judges ask for a brief to the court from independent experts. Judges know they may not know all the nitty gritty details of the wide range of technical cases they need to rule on.

Any judge worth their salt recognizes this and asks for outside assistance, or asks their clerks to do so.

In addition, interested third parties (who may be neutral or severely biased one way or the other) can and do file "Amicus [curiae]" briefs to the court to get their opinion heard. (Amicus means friend, as in a friend of the court.)

The briefs need to be informative rather than highly slanted to be helpful.