Today I learned that there are people in this world who are testifying experts in the field of “lap dancing.” That, combined with my discovery in April that there are testifying “smell experts,” has prompted me to launch what could become an ongoing series of posts here at LBW called “Trust Me, I’m an Expert.” A Reuters article from earlier this month (via Lowering the Bar) that discussed the testimony of a lap dance expert may have many men with pockets full of one-dollar bills thinking that they missed their calling. In 677 New Loudon Corp. v. State of New York Tax Appeals Tribunal, a gentleman’s club near Albany, N.Y., called Nite Moves claimed that it did not need to charge a sales tax on private lap dances because such dances are “dramatic or musical art performances” not subject to such tax. In support of its argument, Nite Moves relied on the expert testimony of cultural anthropologist who based upon her personal observations gleaned from a visit to petitioner’s club, as well as her review of the dances depicted on the Nite Moves DVD entered into evidence at the administrative hearing and her interviews with certain of the club’s dancers,…
