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Tone on Trial: Assessing Juror Reactions to Expert Witness Speech in Auditor Negligence Cases
Harville, Laura
Harville, Laura
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Date
2016
Additional date(s)
2016-05-19
Abstract
An attorney may hire an expert witness to present testimony in a jury trial in order to provide a technical opinion about information in the case. This paper addresses the research question, "does an expert's speech in an auditor negligence trial influence the jurors' evaluation of that testimony, and ultimately the auditor's liability?" In the following sections, I address this question by presenting current research on the role of an expert witness in the courtroom, as well as the extent to which an expert's speech may influence jurors and their decision-making. Furthermore, I argue that this line of research has an important application to the audit field given the increase in auditor negligence litigation since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The present study tested the level of perceived credibility, likability, and persuasiveness of an expert witness in a mock jury trial by manipulating technical versus conversational speech. This study found that technical versus conversational language in an expert witness' testimony did not influence the mock jurors' perceptions of the expert's credibility, likability, or persuasiveness within statistical significance.
Contents
Subject
audit
expert witness
jury trial
negligence
expert witness
jury trial
negligence
Subject(s)
Research Projects
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Description
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Department
Accounting