What do pediatric healthcare experts really need to know about Daubert and the rules of evidence

Pediatricians, pediatric radiologists and neuroradiologists render countless medical opinions on a daily basis. When physicians use their specialized medical knowledge and sophisticated evaluative methods and tools to diagnose child abuse, their opinions shape and may even determine legal decisions in the juvenile, family and criminal courts. These out-of-court evaluations and in-court “expert opinions” frequently help courts decide cases involving abusive head trauma/shaken baby syndrome (AHT/SBS). In these cases, defense attorneys and their retained medical witnesses have increasingly challenged the scientific foundations for abuse diagnoses and this purported “scientific” controversy has been echoed in the medical and legal literature and the popular press.