Expert Witness Project

Expert witnesses in domestic violence play a vital role in assisting the fact finder to understand the complexities of domestic abuse including counter-intuitive victim behavior, coercive control, and the pattern of behavior that abusers use to control and dominate survivors.

Expert witnesses are experts in one or more of the following topics: 

• Why victims of battering minimize the abuse they have experienced
• Why victims of battering cannot or do not leave abusive relationships
• Battering as a systematic way that abusers utilize various tactics to restrict an intimate partner’s autonomy
• Counterintuitive victim behavior
• Why victims may recant, lie, comply with, defend, or stay with their abuser
• Effects of trauma
• Escalation
• Strangulation

LCADV serves as the referring body to connect domestic violence experts to survivors, private attorneys, and District Attorneys as requested. LCADV will give the requesting party up to three experts from whom to choose. The requestor can contact the expert of their choice for additional information, including estimated cost for their services.