Surveys as Legal Evidence

Survey researchers are frequently frustrated and irritated by the difficulties they encounter when the results of their surveys are introduced as legal evidence. The sources of these difficulties are traced to contrasting scientific and legal interest in “truth” and methods for establishing truth. These contrasts explain why the scientific worth of a survey is, by itself, insufficient to establish its relevance and value as evidence in an individual case. Consequently, despite the widespread use of survey data in litigation, the admissibility of and evidentiary weight given to surveys remains problematic. Survey researchers must be as sensitive to legal precedent and rules of evidence as they are to scientific method when designing surveys for their data to be accepted by a court.