Expert Witness News, Articles, Reports and Reference Documents

Jun 20 ’17 — Medical expert witness reports must address proxmiate cause, making a good-faith effort to factually explain how and why a breach of the standard of care caused injury, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled, reversing the state court of appeals.

Jun 7 ’17 — Expert witnesses’ tests or experiments on the actual accused products are not always necessary to prove patent infringement, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, reversing the award of $6.6 million by the U.S. District Court, E.D. Pa.

Jun 2 ’17 — Under new tort reforms in Iowa, health care expert witnesses in malpractice cases must, among other new hurdles, be licensed in the same or substantially similar specialty as the defendant and be in active practice or academia in the previous five years

Jun 1 ’17 — No legal precedent supports a bright-line rule against nurses acting as expert witnesses and testifying at trial regarding causation, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled, overturning a trial court.

May 24 ’17 — Imperfect data makes for imperfect expert witness reports, but that does not make them unreliable or unscientific, the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled, overturning a summary judgment where the trial court acknowledged the report was likely correct.

Apr 28 ’17 — An expert witness “need not be an expert in a particular field to offer an expert opinion on damages that is based on broadly applicable calculations and measurements”, a U.S. District Court has ruled.

Apr 26 ’17 — Do indigent defendants have a right to mental health expert witnesses, independent of the prosecution, in capital cases? The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments April 24th on that question in the Alabama death-penalty appeal case, McWilliams v. Dunn.

Mar 29 ’17 — The “Show Me” state has adopted the Daubert standard, as well as other provisions from the Federal Rules of Evidence, aligning it with the majority of other states’ evidence standards.

Mar 16 ’17 — Just because your methodology and procedures are ruled “fundamentally flawed”, your data found “unreliable” and your expert witness report rejected, don’t fret. You may have a future as the next Counselor to the President of the United States.

Mar 15 ’17 — If a court finds that an expert opinion is inadmissible at trial because disclosure requirements were not met, and an objection was raised, that expert’s declaration may not be considered at summary judgment, the Supreme Court of California has ruled.