Expert Witness News, Articles, Reports and Reference Documents

Mar 30 ’16 — Conducting a Daubert analysis is a required gatekeeping function of the courts, a US appellate court has ruled, reversing a district court’s exclusion of an expert witness after it did so without providing any basis for its decision.

Mar 28 ’16 — An expert witness cannot tell a jury what result it should reach, nor invade a court’s province by giving an opinion on the legal conclusions to be drawn from the evidence, a US district court has noted in excluding a police procedures expert witness.

Mar 23 ’16 — Supplemental disclosures of an expert opinion are intended to be supplements, not to be the “lion’s share” of the expert information, a US District Court has ruled, excluding the expert witness’ opinion.

Mar 16 ’16 — The reliability of an expert’s methodology is within the court’s province, but not the conclusions drawn from it, the New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled, reversing the district and appellate courts’ exclusion of a toxicologist’s expert opinion.

Mar 9 ’16 — A wide margin must exist between the specific expertise of expert witnesses and the subject matter on which they opine in order to exclude their opinions under Daubert, the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has ruled.

Feb 18 ’16 — A district court erred in finding an expert witness’ causation opinion unreliable, a US appellate court has ruled, in an alleged defective rifle design case where the expert opined that the gun fired and killed its owner without the trigger being pulled.

Feb 10 ’16 — A circuit court did not err in excluding a medical expert witness’ opinion proffered without supporting literature where contradictory, peer-reviewed medical literature existed, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled, reversing the state Court of Appeals.

Feb 2 ’16 — Expert witnesses may have general immunity from the courts for flawed testimony, but not from their professional associations. An association that censured one of its members for his testimony has had its censure upheld the a U.S. appellate court.

Jan 26 ’16 — A single-engine plane crash that left the occupants permanently confined to wheelchairs has generated nine motions to exclude expert witness testimony, highlighting the judge’s complicated gatekeeping function under Daubert.

Jan 15 ’16 — A general surgery expert witness who testified that an injury to the common bile duct is “always due to negligence” was not making a claim tantamount to a “negligence per se” standard, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled.