Appendix E: Questions for Plaintiff Forensic Expert: Rebuttal (From Sexual Abuse Litigation: A Practical Resource for Attorneys, Clinicians, and Advocates, P 297-301, 2000, Rebecca Rix, ed. -- See NCJ-193287)

• NCJ Number: 193297
• Author(s): Barbara Jo Levy
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 5 pages
• Sale Source: Haworth Maltreatment and Trauma Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Instructional Material
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This appendix presents the questions asked by the plaintiff's attorney of an expert witness in rebuttal to the testimony of defense experts and witnesses in a case of child sexual abuse that involved an adult's repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse; answers anticipated by the plaintiff's attorney are included.

Abstract

The questions are outlined under the categories of "scientific evidence" and "plaintiff information." The questions on "scientific evidence" are intended to elicit an expert's challenge to the argument by defense experts that there is no scientific evidence for repression or forgetting of multiple traumatic episodes. Anticipated answers from the plaintiff's expert witness are that there are numerous accounts in the scientific literature on adults in treatment who have had periods in which they have been unable to recall a series of traumatic events. The expert also testifies to his/her own professional clinical experience regarding client's repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse. The rebuttal questions also address the reliability of a subject's recollection of traumatic events that have been repressed until brought to consciousness some years later under treatment. Questions under "plaintiff information" pertain to statements by witnesses regarding the plaintiff's behaviors in childhood and the possible source of childhood and adult psychological dysfunction. Claims by defense experts of "false memories" by the plaintiff are also challenged in the rebuttal questions.