Together with the Council for the Judiciary (Raad voor de Rechtspraak), the Master’s in Forensic Science initiated a pilot programme to investigate whether introducing forensic consultants as a new profession within the court could contribute to the improvement of forensic knowledge within the judiciary. As part of this programme, three alumni of the Master's programme started working at the court as forensic consultants in 2012. A year later, after a successful evaluation of the pilot, these positions became permanent. At the time of writing, in 2018, nine forensic consultants are working at different courts in the Netherlands, all of them are alumni of the Master’s programme.

Forensic consultant

The forensic consultant assists the judge in evaluating complex forensic reports on all kinds of forensic technical subjects and facilitates the contact between the judge and the forensic expert. This means studying the findings of all forensic research done in a criminal case and analysing this within the judicial context of that particular case, for instance. A forensic consultant then advises the judge whether further research or explanation of the findings is needed. In case further research is needed, or an expert is required to give a testimony at trail, the forensic consultant helps the judges prepare by formulating relevant (research) questions and helps them find relevant background information to better understand the subject matter at hand.

Beyond case work

The forensic consultants are also involved in activities that reach beyond case work. For instance, they facilitate the organisation of forensic seminars within the courts in which forensic experts are invited to share their knowledge and the consultants have initiated a system of structural feedback to forensic institutes, which helps them to make improvements in their reports if needed.

Essentially, forensic consultants bridge the knowledge and communication gap between judges and forensic experts.