Nonetheless, some courts refuse to qualify domestic violence workers as experts who can testify regarding their knowledge of abuse arising from their experience working with women in shelters or other settings. This view damages the expert s credibility, limits the effectiveness of the testimony, and may cause disqualification of the expert. Recent Supreme Court rulings on expert opinion may have had the effect of privileging scientific inquiry. This may increase the court s use of standard scientific requirements, like testability, peer review, publication, rate of error, and general acceptance. These scientific requirements often inappropriately assess the worth of social science studies or the clinical experience of the expert.
Expert opinion explains why victims minimize abuse and keep abuse a secret.
Domestic violence experts facilitate custody determinations by offering insight into the current and potential effects on children in a domestic violence household. However, as useful as experts may be, they are often costly and impractical. The summary nature of order of protection hearings makes calling an expert unlikely even if the party could find and afford one. Evidentiary Implications of Concurrent Civil and Criminal Proceedings. Order of protection hearings often occur in the shadow of a criminal prosecution for assault.