What an expert witness really does in court #expertwitness #forensicpsychology #criminalpsychologist

Let's talk about expert witnesses. What is an expert witness? It's an individual with a specialized set of skills. In my case, I'm specialized in counseling psychology, therapy, trauma, etc. An individual with a specialized set of skills who helps the jury in a legal case to make sense of the evidence and the facts and the concepts involved in the case. So in my particular case, I'm usually an expert witness on cases that involve mental health, that involve trauma, the extent of one's trauma, causes of one's trauma, the consequences of one's trauma, and racial and ethnic cultural issues, how all of those issues impact one's accountability or culpability in a legal case, and how it might impact their treatment. Recovery, incarceration. So an expert witness is basically someone who comes in and helps the case, provides specialized knowledge so that the jury now understands the concepts and the topics, the meanings of things such as trauma, like what is trauma, for instance.