ABSTRACT
The United States of America and Canada have legal systems based on common law principles, but with the added dimension of constitutionalised human rights protections that regulate criminal investigations, police behaviour, and criminal trial practice. Legal rules are important at two phases of the work performed by a forensic gait analyst. During the investigative phase, the work will be regulated by rules and procedures about matters such as what information may be collected by police, how that information can be shared with forensic analysts who are State employees, and what information must be disclosed to a criminal suspect. A forensic gait analyst should make and keep full records of all information received, procedures undertaken, and results obtained. Forensic gait analysis is treated as expert opinion evidence in the US and Canada, which means that it will be subject to judicial evaluation before a forensic practitioner will be permitted to give evidence.
