The Law Society of NSW has teamed up with Expert Experts to provide a fascinating CLE series looking at key areas of forensic expert evidence commonly used in criminal and civil trials. 

Forensics Seminar Series

Have you ever struggled with how CCTV or other images can be used in Court, how to determine if a fire was deliberately lit, what effects different drugs or alcohol really had on your clients’ legal capacity and behaviours, whether the stated cause of death is accurate, whether certain injuries are consistent with a particular version of events, or how fraud is detected from accounting records?  Join us each Wednesday morning at 7.45am to find out these and other fascinating forensic facts from leading Experts.

The “Forensics Seminar Series” will run 7.45-8.45am every Wednesday morning from 15 February – 22 March 2017 at the Law Society of NSW, 170 Phillip Street, Sydney NSW 2000.

The sessions can be purchased individually or the entire series can be purchased at a discount.[viii]

The Sessions and Expert Speakers

Using Images as Forensic Evidence

Associate Professor Glenn Porter PhD, 7.45-8.45am Wednesday 15 February 2017: A discussion of the current state of methodological knowledge of the use and interpretation of images in legal proceedings including the reliability of images captured on mobile phones and public and private security cameras and social media.  Glenn Porter is an Associate Professor in Photomedia at James Cook University. His PhD thesis was “The Reliability of CCTV Images as Forensic Evidence”. He was the founding academic and Head of Program of the Bachelor of Science (Forensic Science) degree at  UWS, a forensic photographer with the AFP, has a Master of Applied Science (Photography) from RMIT and has worked and published extensively in this area. For more information or to book.[i]

Pharmacology – Drugs & Alcohol

Professor Edward Ogden PSM, 7.45-8.45am Wednesday 22 February 2017: A Discussion of the effects of drugs and alcohol on human behaviour in the forensic context including the on relevant skills, performance and behaviours and the extent to which they can be used to assess the degree to which performance is likely to have been impaired at a particular time.  Edward Ogden is Deputy Director (Addiction and Forensic Medicine) Department of Psychopharmacology Swinburne University of Technology and was employed by the Victoria Police in various roles from 1978 to 2012 including 11 years full-time in the Department of Forensic Medicine and 17 years as Principal Medical Advisor with responsibility for research into drugs and motor accidents. He has a Diploma in Criminology and was a visiting lecturer in Criminology at the University of Melbourne from 1990-2003.  For more information or to book.[ii]

Fire & Explosion Investigation

Mr James (Jim) Munday and Ms Belinda Jones, 7.45-8.45am Wednesday 1 March 2017: A discussion of the scientific method as it applies to the investigation of the origin and cause of a fire or explosion (including NFPA Standard 921), including the evidentiary issues that arise when much of the relevant evidence has been destroyed by the event being investigated, and the difficulties involved in moving from factual cause to legal responsibility. Jim Munday worked with the organisation that became the (UK) Forensic Science Service from 1972 to 1998.  He has examined the scenes of more than 1800 fires and explosions including over 350 fatalities.  Belinda Jones, BSc (App Chem) in validating Canine Accelerant Detection with NSW Fire Brigade and MSc (Forensic Science) in Accelerants for the Development of a Biosensor, worked NSW Police Service as a crime scene investigator and at Westmead Laboratory and for a leading insurer as a fire investigator before entering private practice. She has examined over 400 incident scenes including structures, vehicles and machinery. For more information or to book.[iii]

Forensic Pathology

Dr Johan (Jo) Duflou, 7.45-8.45am Wednesday 8 March 2017: An introduction to forensic pathology, including a discussion of how a forensic pathologist investigates injury mechanism and cause of death, the different issues in respect of which a forensic pathologist can provide opinions, and the materials a forensic pathologist needs from legal practitioners to allow them to provide a reliable opinion. Dr Johan Duflou MBChB MMedPath(Forens) FRCPA is one of the best known forensic pathologists in Australia. He was Clinical Director Department of Forensic Medicine Sydney from 2002-2015. His duties included death investigations for the coroner, extensive attendance at various courts in a number of different countries as an expert witness, teaching of medical and other undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Sydney, University of NSW,

Notre Dame University and University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and training and supervision of pathology registrars for admission to Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.  For more information or to book.[iv]

Bio-Mechanics of Injury Causation

Dr Tom Gibson PhD, 7.45-8.45am Wednesday 15 March 2017: An introduction bio-mechanics and injury causation in the forensic context, including a discussion of the modelling and other analytical techniques currently available, their benefits and limitations, and of areas in which bio-mechanists provide forensic opinions (criminal and civil) including eg: human falls whether from a balcony, machine or floor; causation of specific injuries; industrial and motor vehicle accidents. Dr Tom Gibson PhD in Biomedical Engineering is also BEng (Mechanical) and MSc (Automotive Engineering) and helped establish Australia’s first multi-disciplinary crash investigation team in 1984-85 at the NH&MRC Road Accident Research Unit in Adelaide.  He is a leading bio-mechanist and accident reconstruction expert who has provided extensive expert opinion evidence on the causes of human injury from falls, blows, industrial accidents, motor vehicle accidents and from a wide range of other circumstances.  For more information or to book.[v]

Forensic Accounting

David Watt, Chartered Accountant, 7.45-8.45am Wednesday 22 March 2017:  A discussion of how forensic accountants analyse primary and secondary accounting records and source materials to provide opinions, whether on the true financial status of an enterprise or person or other financial issues, and the role of the instructing legal practitioner in that process. Including a discussion of how those principles apply to a range of different situations such as: fraud investigations (criminal and civil); determining the sources of funds; assessing solvency and insolvent trading; assessing business interruption losses, commercial losses, personal injury damages, and family law assets; as well as other areas.   David Watt has specialised in providing forensic accounting opinions since 1990. He worked with Horwath (NSW) Pty Limited as a Director, Deloitte Touche Tomatsu as a Partner and Marsh Pty Ltd as a Principal before commencing his own practice. He has extensive experience providing forensic accounting expert opinions and giving evidence across a wide range of areas (criminal and civil) and jurisdictions.  For more information and to book.[vi]

Entire Series at a discount:

To book the entire series at a discount.[vii]

[i] http://eshop.lawsociety.com.au/index.php/events/seminars/using-images-as-forensic-evidence.html

[ii] http://eshop.lawsociety.com.au/index.php/events/seminars/forensics-seminar-series-pharmacology-drugs-and-alcohol.html

[iii] http://eshop.lawsociety.com.au/index.php/events/seminars/fire-and-explosion-investigation.html

[iv] http://eshop.lawsociety.com.au/index.php/events/seminars/forensic-pathology.html

[v]http://eshop.lawsociety.com.au/index.php/events/seminars/bio-mechanics-of-injury-causation.html

[vi] http://eshop.lawsociety.com.au/index.php/events/seminars/forensic-accounting.html

[vii] http://eshop.lawsociety.com.au/index.php/events/seminars/forensic-seminar-breakfast-series.html

[viii] http://eshop.lawsociety.com.au/index.php/events/seminars/forensic-seminar-breakfast-series.html