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The Leader Board

    The method used to compute admissibility rates is explained elsewhere.  Here are the present overall standings:

 

Criminologists/Forensics   .847
Appraisers   .800
Chemists   .722
Hydrologists   .667
Statisticians   .647 
Metallurgists   .600
Accountants/Economists   .598
Admiralty Experts   .556
Aviation Experts   .500 
Fire Experts   .478 
Physicians   .463
Engineers   .390 
Accident Reconstructionists   .387
Psychologists/Psychiatrists   .371
Attorneys   .333
Marketing Experts   .333
Nurses   .333
Toxicologists   .308
Polygraphers   .121

    The good testimonial fortune enjoyed by criminologists & forensic experts is noteworthy, although their admissibility rate would be slightly less impressive were polygraphers not treated as a separate category.  Accountants & economists may do better than average because their testimony frequently goes to damages, a subject where requirements of evidentiary precision are sometimes more relaxed.  Or it may be that economic and statistical testimony fares relatively well because there is less room for debate, when math is involved.  The admissibility rate for physicians consistently hovers close to .500, as one might not expect if clear and well-understood criteria permitted confident predictions about the fate of their testimony.  All these figures may be skewed, of course, because only cases reaching the appellate level are counted here.