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Fire the hired gun: Eliminating expert bias in the accusatorial-adversarial civil justice system
In 1954, an expert witness, Dr Unsworth, testifying for the defendant, exculpatorily opined that the plaintiff was a malingerer, but had he testified for the plaintiff instead, his opinion would be that the plaintiff's condition was post-traumatic at the hands of the defendant. 1 This statement capt...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Public Law
2025
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| _version_ | 1867614115089874944 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Kehrhahn_FHH, Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann |
| author2 | Professor Pamela Jane Schwikkard |
| author_browse | Kehrhahn_FHH, Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann Professor Pamela Jane Schwikkard |
| author_facet | Professor Pamela Jane Schwikkard Kehrhahn_FHH, Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann |
| author_sort | Kehrhahn_FHH, Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | In 1954, an expert witness, Dr Unsworth, testifying for the defendant, exculpatorily opined that the plaintiff was a malingerer, but had he testified for the plaintiff instead, his opinion would be that the plaintiff's condition was post-traumatic at the hands of the defendant. 1 This statement captures the essence of the adversarial expert bias problem. As early as 1843, selection expert bias (adversarial bias) was observed in AngloAmerican jurisdictions. 2 From a cursory search of South African case law, more fully set out in section 4.8, it is evident that expert bias is a legitimate and significant problem. 3 This work considers the problematic manifestation of expert bias in South Africa and possible responses thereto in the context of a predominantly adversarial procedural system, but the problem is in no way confined to the adversarial legal systems |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41543 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:46:54.519Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Department of Public Law |
| publisherStr | Department of Public Law |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41543 Fire the hired gun: Eliminating expert bias in the accusatorial-adversarial civil justice system Kehrhahn_FHH, Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann Professor Pamela Jane Schwikkard Law In 1954, an expert witness, Dr Unsworth, testifying for the defendant, exculpatorily opined that the plaintiff was a malingerer, but had he testified for the plaintiff instead, his opinion would be that the plaintiff's condition was post-traumatic at the hands of the defendant. 1 This statement captures the essence of the adversarial expert bias problem. As early as 1843, selection expert bias (adversarial bias) was observed in AngloAmerican jurisdictions. 2 From a cursory search of South African case law, more fully set out in section 4.8, it is evident that expert bias is a legitimate and significant problem. 3 This work considers the problematic manifestation of expert bias in South Africa and possible responses thereto in the context of a predominantly adversarial procedural system, but the problem is in no way confined to the adversarial legal systems 2025-07-24T09:05:35Z 2025-07-24T09:05:35Z 2023 2025-07-24T09:02:03Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41543 eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law University of Cape town |
| spellingShingle | Law Kehrhahn_FHH, Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann Fire the hired gun: Eliminating expert bias in the accusatorial-adversarial civil justice system |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | Fire the hired gun: Eliminating expert bias in the accusatorial-adversarial civil justice system |
| title_full | Fire the hired gun: Eliminating expert bias in the accusatorial-adversarial civil justice system |
| title_fullStr | Fire the hired gun: Eliminating expert bias in the accusatorial-adversarial civil justice system |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fire the hired gun: Eliminating expert bias in the accusatorial-adversarial civil justice system |
| title_short | Fire the hired gun: Eliminating expert bias in the accusatorial-adversarial civil justice system |
| title_sort | fire the hired gun eliminating expert bias in the accusatorial adversarial civil justice system |
| topic | Law |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41543 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kehrhahnfhhferdinandheinrichhermann firethehiredguneliminatingexpertbiasintheaccusatorialadversarialciviljusticesystem |