THE EMERGING FORENSIC ROLE FOR WORK PRODUCT REVIEW AND CASE ANALYSIS IN CHILD ACCESS AND PARENTING PLAN DISPUTES

An emerging forensic service is that of conducting a work product review of a court‐appointed child custody evaluator's evaluation and report. If the reviewer determines there are serious deficiencies in the work product, then the reviewer will provide consultation to the retaining attorney and expert testimony. The reviewer usually is in a hybrid role of consulting/advising the retaining attorney, testifying, and educating the court. Ethical issues in providing forensic services and rebuttal testimony as a reviewer are discussed. Both reviewers and evaluators have a duty to be objective and balanced in their analyses of data and issues. Both types of experts should strive to be helpful to the court and try to serve the best interests of children. Ethical nuances involving review work are discussed. Evaluator and reviewer share the same dataset. Evaluators need to take care to keep a high quality case record with legible interview notes. Reviewers provide a monitoring function for the court or a function of forensic quality control so the court will not be misled by expert testimony of evaluators that is based on flawed data collection and/or analysis. A list of questions is presented for reviewers to use in scrutinizing the quality of the custody evaluation. A list of questions is presented for examining the quality of the reviewer's own work product. The importance of a case analysis and use of conceptual frameworks by evaluators and reviewers is discussed.     

Investigation of nocturnal oviposition by necrophilous flies in central Texas

The need to accurately estimate the postmortem interval (PMI) has prompted research into factors affecting fly oviposition (i.e., oviposition and/or larviposition) on a corpse. Research efforts have focused on whether or not diurnally active flies oviposit during nighttime hours. This study reports that nocturnal oviposition (defined as occurring between 2100-0600 h CDST (Central Daylight Savings Time)) did not occur on freshly killed white rats or mice, on beef (fresh or aged up to 48 h), on freshly thawed pigs, nor, usually, on thawed pigs that were aged for up to 48 h. Limited oviposition did occur between 2100 and 2120 h on one bloated pig at a lighted rural site. Necrophilous flies were present and active at lighted and dark sites (urban and rural) before and immediately after sunset, but fly activity on the bait ceased within 50 min postsunset and did not resume until after 0600 h. These observations support other studies reporting that diurnally active flies do not oviposit during the nighttime.     

Business Experts on Public Sector Boards: What Do They Contribute?

Although public management reforms around the world have given business experts an enhanced role in the governance of public sector organizations, the impact of this change is poorly understood. Drawing from the literature on board human capital as a theoretical framework and focusing on the case of hospital boards in the English National Health Service, this concern is addressed by investigating whether increasing the presence of individuals with business expertise has any significant relationship with organizational performance. The findings show that while business expertise appears to have no influence on service quality, it does have a positive effect on financial performance. However, this only applies to governing boards that are less experienced in terms of their collective tenure. The findings lend partial support to board capital theory but also show that in certain conditions generic business expertise can be a valuable asset for public sector organizations.     

The influence of physical properties and lipid content of bile on the human blood/bile ethanol ratio

The relationship between ethanol levels in blood and bile was determined in human postmortem specimens. The influences of several physical properties--surface tension, specific gravity and viscosity--and bile lipid content on the blood/bile ethanol ratio were evaluated. A gas chromatographic direct injection technique was employed to determine the ethanol concentrations in postmortem blood and bile specimens. A positive correlation was established between the levels in the two fluids. No correlation could be found between the blood/bile ethanol ratios and the aforementioned physical properties of bile. Correction of the observed bile ethanol for lipid content had an insignificant effect on the ratio. The average blood/bile ethanol ratio was 1.03 +/- 0.29 (range: 0.32-2.91). The wide range observed makes it undesirable to use bile ethanol concentrations to predict specific blood ethanol concentrations. However, under certain conditions, bile ethanol levels may be used to estimate blood concentrations within a range of values.     

Changing regulation and the future of the professional partnership: the case of the Legal Services Act, 2007 in England and Wales

The UK Legal Services Act 2007 permits external financing and unlimited non-lawyer ownership of legal practices through the formation of Alternative Business Structures (ABSs). For many, the impact of this changed regulation on the ‘professional partnership’, as the dominant organisational form through which legal services are delivered, will be considerable. However, to date few studies have explored this empirically. This paper addresses this gap by examining organisational changes within ABSs to assess how far these firms have departed from the professional partnership model. Focusing upon the ABS population licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority between January 2012 and August 2015, the study findings show a continuum of organisational responses against four specified indicators: incorporation; multi-disciplinary practices; non-lawyer ownership; and external investment. These range from those that depart little from traditional practices to those that are more radical. We conclude that, whilst regulatory reform has yet to dislodge the dominance of the professional partnership, it has disturbed the status quo and increased the variety of ‘economic units’ within which legal services are delivered.     

Does Financial Development Contribute to Poverty Reduction?

The article examines the contribution of financial development to poverty reduction in developing countries. Building on earlier research which has established links between financial development and economic growth, and between economic growth and poverty reduction, the article tests for a causal process linking financial sector growth and poverty reduction. The empirical results indicate that, up to a threshold level of economic development, financial sector growth contributes to poverty reduction through the growth-enhancing effect. The impact of financial development on poverty reduction will be affected, however, by any change in income inequality resulting from financial development.     

Privatisation in Developing Countries: A Review of the Evidence and the Policy Lessons

Privatisation is widely promoted as a means of improving economic performance in developing countries. However, the policy remains controversial and the relative roles of ownership and other structural changes, such as competition and regulation, in promoting economic performance remain uncertain. This article reviews the main empirical evidence on the impact of privatisation on economic performance in developing economies. The evidence suggests that if privatisation is to improve performance over the longer term, it needs to be complemented by policies that promote competition and effective state regulation, and that privatisation works best in developing countries when it is integrated into a broader process of structural reform.