Expert Witness News, Articles, Reports and Reference Documents

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.

Mar 6 ’17 — Disclosure of proposed expert witness testimony is not required when experts are not “specially retained” for litigation, the Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled, affirming the district court’s decision.

Feb 17 ’17 — A clinical psychologist’s expert report “could have been written in a clearer manner”, the Minnesota Supreme Court noted in its reversal of a state Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals’ decision, reinstating the compensation judge’s findings.

Feb 3 ’17 — An expert opinion filed in opposition to a summary judgment does not need to be as extensive as those offered in support, but it still must be “adequately supported” to be admissible, the California Court of Appeals has ruled.

Feb 1 ’17 — After her murder conviction was vacated, Lana Canen sued the expert witness witness who had testified that her latent fingerprint was on a medication container found at the crime scene, even though he was untrained as a latent fingerprint examiner.