NCJ Number
117664
Editor(s)
M H DeGroot,
S E Fienberg,
J B Kadane
Date Published
1986
Length
484 pages
Annotation
This volume, which applies statistical concepts to legal settings, was written to provide useful information to statisticians who may serve as expert witnesses or consultants and to give statisticians a better understanding of the legal process and philosophy to which lawyers must adhere.
Abstract
Two areas of litigation which rely heavily on the use of statisticians as expert witnesses are employment discrimination and antitrust violations. The use of statistics in employment discrimination cases is reviewed, with emphasis on the 1977 Supreme Court decision in Hazelwood v. U.S. and on the 80 percent rule promulgated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Regression analysis is used to adjust for productivity and other factors in comparing the wages of men and women in employment discrimination cases and to estimate damages in antitrust price-fixing cases. An overview of the statistical aspects of both liability and damages in antitrust litigation is presented, and different roles that statisticians can play over the course of antitrust litigation are examined. The use of statistical inference and models in disputed paternity cases, disputed elections, and environmental cases is considered, as well as various cases in which confidence intervals have been important and the issue of how confidence intervals can be interpreted appropriately in courts. The effective presentation of statistical analysis in the courtroom is discussed. 391 references, 28 figures, 38 tables.