ABSTRACT
The law of evidence often makes a distinction between two kinds of reliability: threshold reliability and ultimate reliability. Threshold reliability refers to a legal decision by the judge as to whether the evidence should be allowed to be heard by the trier of fact, whether that trier of fact is the judge or a jury. Ultimate reliability is a reference to how persuasive evidence is that is allowed to go into trial. The legal tests on expert opinion evidence place a premium on evidentiary reliability and therefore, at least on the surface, appear to address the gap between perceived credibility and factual accuracy. In practice, there are definite difficulties involved with judges trying to apply the gatekeeper function. Sophia Gatowski and several others did a survey study of 400 judges in the United States. The judges overwhelmingly supported the gatekeeper function of Daubert.
