General Info and Principles  For Attorneys' Information

Please read before contacting Dr. Pressman

For all defense attorneys in the United States and Canada:  Dr. Pressman will not accept cases in which the defendant was voluntarily alcohol intoxicated before or during the claimed sleepwalking, sleep driving or sexual behavior in sleep episode.

For all defense attorneys:  Dr. Pressman does not accept all cases.  He makes his decision based on whether or not the defense can be supported by reliable scientific evidence.

For all attorneys:  Agreement for initial consultation or evaluation does not include an agreement to testify in court.   A decision to testify or not will be made until the initial evaluation is complete.  

For all attorneys:  It is Dr. Pressman's belief that expert witnesses should not be "hired guns" or advocates.  Rather, Dr. Pressman  follows the spirit of the law:

 -    In the United States, Federal Rules of Evidence 702 states that the duty of the expert is "assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue...." 
      
 -   In Canada, the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada - WBLI v. Abbott and Haliburton (2015) states that " Expert witnesses have a duty to the court to give fair, objective and non-partisan  opinion evidence.".

 -    In the U.K., the Criminal Procedure Rules 33.2 states " (1) An expert must help the court achieve the overriding objective by giving objective, unbiased opinions on matters within his expertise."