May 6, 2010

Lawyer Loses Bid to Use MRI as Lie Detector to Help Prove Bias Claim

by Debra Cassens Weiss
ABA Journal

A New York lawyer has lost his bid to introduce brain scan evidence in an employee retaliation trial to support a claim that a plaintiff’s co-worker was telling the truth and a supervisor was not.

Lawyer David Zevin wanted to introduce the results of an fMRI—or functional magnetic resonance imaging—that shows oxygenated blood flow in the brain of a co-worker who supports the plaintiff’s version of events, Wired.com reports. At issue is whether a supervisor at a temporary agency said the plaintiff should not be placed on jobs because she had once complained about sexual harassment. The supervisor says he never said such a thing; the co-worker disagrees.

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