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Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, 2' ed. Federal Judicial Center, Washington D.C., 2000.
This publication is in the public domain and will probably be published by several legal publishers, but is also available for downloading via the internet at http:Hair.fjc.gov/public/fjcweb.nsf/pages/16
A Brief History of the Reference Manual's Impact on Forensic Economics
The second edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence has now been provided to all federal judges. The publisher is the Federal Judicial Center (FJC), "the continuing education and research arm of the federal judicial system." The FJC was established by statute by Congress in 1967 "as a separate organization within the judicial branch at the request of the Judicial Conference of the United States (FJC 1993). The first edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence was published in January, 1994 by the FJC to provide guidance to the federal judiciary on matters of scientific evidence.
This appears to be a less dramatic event than the publication of the first edition in 1994 but is still likely to be of significance to forensic economists. The first edition was the third stroke in a series of very important changes in the practice of forensic economics. The first was in June of 1993, when the United States Supreme Court reached its decision in Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993). The second was the implementation of the 1993 changes in the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in December 1993. The most immediate and obvious impact of those rule changes were in Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, when it became necessary for experts appearing in federal courts to maintain lists of all testimonies at deposition or at trial during the previous four years. By this time, that rule had become commonplace to forensic practitioners, but it was a significant change from previous practice. The third step was publication by the Federal Judicial Center of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence in January of 1994.
There is some similarity of circumstances with the appearance of the second edition of the Reference Manual. The U.S. Supreme Court reached another important decision affecting forensic experts in March of 1999 in Kumho Tire...