Expert witness A person who is a specialist in a subject, often technical, who may present his/her expert opinion without having been a witness to any occurrence relating to the lawsuit or criminal case. It is an exception to the rule against giving an opinion in trial, provided that the expert is qualified by evidence of his/her expertise, training and special knowledge. If the expertise is challenged, the attorney for the party calling the "expert" must make a showing of the necessary background through questions in court, and the trial judge has discretion to qualify the witness or rule he/she is not an expert, or is an expert on limited subjects. Experts are usually paid handsomely for their services and may be asked by the opposition the amount they are receiving for their work on the case. In most jurisdictions, both sides must exchange the names and addresses of proposed experts to allow pre-trial depositions.

Appellate Jurisdiction Appellate jurisdiction is the power of a court to review decisions and change outcomes of decisions of lower courts. Most appellate jurisdiction is legislatively created, and may consist of appeals by leave of the appellate court or by right. Depending on the type of case and the decision below, appellate review primarily consists of: an entirely new hearing (a non trial de novo); a hearing where the appellate court gives deference to factual findings of the lower court; or review of particular legal rulings made by the lower court (an appeal on the record).

US Court of Appeals Districts

Change of Venue A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about a crime and its defendant(s) to another community in order to obtain jurors who can be more objective in their duties. This change may be to different towns, and across the other sides of states or, in some extremely high-profile federal cases, to other states.legal termtrialjury trialimpartial jurypublicitydefendantjurorsfederal

Juror Any person who actually serves on a jury. Lists of potential jurors are chosen from various sources such as registered voters, automobile registration or telephone directories. The names are drawn by lot (more often by computer random selection) and requested to appear for possible service. Before a trial begins the names of jurors are assigned to a trial court, and a further selection process is made. Acceptable excuses from service are determined by state law or by the judge before or during the final selection process. If chosen, a juror receives a small amount of pay per day of service and payment for automobile mileage from home to court. A member of a grand jury is called a grand juror

Jury Pool

Subpoena A subpoena /səˈpiːnə/ (also subpœna) is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:/səˈpiːnə/writ 1.subpoena ad testificandum orders a person to testify before the ordering authority or face punishment. The subpoena can also request the testimony to be given by phone or in person.subpoena ad testificandum 2.subpoena duces tecum orders a person or organization to bring physical evidence before the ordering authority or face punishment. This is often used for requests to mail copies of documents to the requesting party or directly to court.subpoena duces tecum

Rehabilitation Rehabilitation is the re-integration into society of a convicted person and the main objective of modern penal policy, to counter habitual offending, also known as criminal recidivism. [1][2]convicted personpenal policyhabitual offendingrecidivism [1][2] Alternatives to imprisonment also exist, such as community service, probation orders, and others entailing guidance and aftercare towards the offender.community service probation

What are some rehab programs? 1. GED 2. Work skills 3. Drug programs 4. Personal skills (anger management, social skills)

Work Skills

Incapacitation Incapacitation in the context of sentencing philosophy is the effect of a sentence in positively preventing (rather than merely deterring) future offending.sentencing philosophydeterring Imprisonment incapacitates the prisoner by physically removing them from the society against which they are deemed to have offended. Long term imprisonment with the intention to incapacitate is often used by criminal justice systems against habitual criminals who recidivate. Incapacitation also focuses on removing the ability of the offenders to commit future crimes. [1]criminal justice systemshabitual criminals recidivate [1]

Deterrence Deterrence is the use of punishment as a threat to deter people from offending. Deterrence is often contrasted with retributivism, which holds that punishment is a necessary consequence of a crime and should be calculated based on the gravity of the wrong done.punishmentretributivism The concept of deterrence has two key assumptions: the first is that specific punishments imposed on offenders will "deter" or prevent them from committing further crimes; the second is that fear of punishment will prevent others from committing similar crimes. [1] [1]

1.Specific deterrence focuses on the individual in question. The aim of these punishments is to discourage the criminal from future criminal acts by instilling an understanding of the consequences. 2.General or indirect deterrence focuses on general prevention of crime by making examples of specific deviants. The individual actor is not the focus of the attempt at behavioral change, but rather receives punishment in public view in order to deter other individuals from deviance in the future. The argument that deterrence, rather than retribution, is the main justification for punishment is a hallmark of the rational choice theory and can be traced to Cesare Beccaria whose well-known treatise On Crimes and Punishments.rational choice theoryCesare BeccariaOn Crimes and Punishments