EVIDENT: An expert system prototype for helping the law student learn admissibility of evidence under the federal rules

Abstract

The applicability of expert systems for helping students learn various subjects has been overlooked in recent years, particularly in the area of law. There have been only a few expert systems developed for helping in computer-aided instruction, such as SOPHIE, BUGGY, and PROUST. This paper describes EVIDENT, an expert system prototype which has been developed to aid a law student or graduate studying for the bar examination in understanding whether a piece of evidence is admissible into court, under the federal rules of evidence. According to many law students, the law class of “evidence” is extremely difficult because the student must remember all the rules of evidence and be able to analyze a situation and know when the various rules and their exceptions apply, and how. To help the student learn this material, EVIDENT has been developed, as described in this paper, which gives the student a structured framework and approach to determining the admissibility of evidence.