Inferring and Explaining

114 Tony’s frst surgery showed that surgeon noted a slight physiological abnormality in Tony’s hip. Who knows if a lifetime of skiing caused the tear or if Tonywas genetically predisposed to develop such a tear. Our jury had to decide between two causal accounts of Tony’s labral tear. InferrIng and exPlaInIng t 0 . The collision caused the labral tear. t 3 . The collision did not cause the labral tear; something else was its cause. We had before us some “direct” evidence—the surgeon who testifed that labral tears almost always came from traumatic forces such as ath- letic injuries or car accidents and almost never from general wear and tear from an active life- style such as Tony’s. Corey’s expert witness, also an orthopedic surgeon, testifed to exactly the opposite. He told us that most common labral tears came from insidious causes and go undi- agnosed for several years. e 6 . Difering expert accounts of the etiology of labral tears chiropractor’s notes, the records from Tony’s surgery, and the towing and body shop bills. Te most important evidence, though, came from expert witnesses who could tell us about crashes of this sort, the causes of labral tears, and the like. As youmight suspect, the experts for the plaintif difered quite a bit in their testimony from the experts for the defense. e 2 . Records from Tony’s chiropractor, his surgery, and the bills from the towing com- pany and body shop e 3 . Difering expert accounts of the accident— Was it a T-bone or sideswipe?—and the forces generated e 4 . Difering expert accounts of Tony’s chi- ropractic history and his visits to his chiro- practor following the accident e 5 . Difering expert accounts of how such an accident could cause a labral tear For me, and I believe for many of my fellow jurors, the key discrepancy in the expert tes- timony concerned the etiology of labral tears. Tony’s expert witness was a former orthopedic Te entire jury was told in no uncertain terms by the judge that we were required to decide the case solely on the basis of the evidence pre- sented in the trial and that under no circum- stances were we permitted to Google anything concerned with the trial. I know that, except for that clear instruction, I would have done a little quick and dirty online research on labral tears. When I did that afer the trial was over, I came to the conclusion that the truthwas sort of halfway in between these two experts—labral tears ofen result from traumatic injuries but also occur from the slow degeneration of the hip. I hope you will remember from chapter 9, accepting testimony, including the legal testi- mony of expert witnesses, involves a two-step inference to the best explanation. In our case, the evidence would look something like the following: e 1 . What was said in the testimony e 2 . Context—sworn testimony in a civil trial e 3 . Relevant biography—the professional credentials of the expert