Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Daubert

  • December 20, 2024

    Expert Out In Hurricane Ida Damage Coverage Case; Report Found Unreliable

    JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi federal judge granted a home insurer summary judgment in a case brought by a couple who say their claim for damages stemming from a hurricane was not covered after finding that their expert’s testimony on causation is inadmissible.

  • December 19, 2024

    Panel Says Man Failed To Show Causation For His Alleged Chemical Exposure Injuries

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that a man claiming that he was injured by chemical exposure in the course of his work making a delivery of chemicals to a paper factor failed to establish medical causation and therefore the case was properly dismissed.

  • December 19, 2024

    Parties Debate Expert’s AI Hallucination Errors In AI Law Challenge

    MINNEAPOLIS — Plaintiffs urged a federal judge in Minnesota to reject an amended expert declaration, saying that correcting artificial intelligence-crafted hallucinations after briefing concluded would be prejudicial and that the request is untimely.  But in opposing exclusion of the expert, Minnesota’s attorney general said that even experts make mistakes and that the AI-generated errors went to the weight of the opinion about a challenge to an AI election misinformation law, not the opinion’s admissibility.

  • December 18, 2024

    Contempt, Stay At Issue In Asbestos Expert Subpoena Case

    NEW YORK — An asbestos expert, her hospital employer and Johnson & Johnson, locked in a battle over production of the identities of individuals the expert relied on in a study on talc exposures, briefed a New York Supreme Court justice on whether contempt sanctions are warranted for failure to produce evidence or whether a forthcoming motion to reargue and a pending motion for a protective order stayed an appellate court’s ruling, according to documents filed on the court’s docket.

  • December 18, 2024

    9th Circuit Agrees No Similarity Between Stage Show, Television Show

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge rightly granted summary judgment in favor of a defendant film studio and associated entities that were accused by a writer of copying elements of a stage play and derivative works she wrote in their ongoing television drama series, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, agreeing with the trial judge that there was no substantial similarity between the works.

  • December 18, 2024

    Government Seeks Exclusion Of Another Witness In Flint Water Tort Claims Act Case

    DETROIT — The U.S. government on Dec. 17 filed a reply brief in Michigan federal court calling for the exclusion of yet another plaintiffs’ expert witness in the $722.4 million Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit against the government related to the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint, Mich., this time on grounds that a doctor’s “lack of medical training disqualifies her from offering testimony that would speculate about the etiologies” of the plaintiffs’ alleged physical conditions related to the contaminated water. 

  • December 17, 2024

    Experts Featured In Mealey's Daubert Report

    Entries are ordered in alphabetical order of the expert in each area of expert testimony.  Experts appeared in the March to December 2024 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.

  • December 17, 2024

    Expert In Wages Case Cannot Testify On Legality Of Company’s Actions, Judge Says

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — An expert retained by a landscaping company facing allegations that it failed to properly pay its workers cannot testify, a Kansas federal judge ruled, because his conclusions are entirely improper legal conclusions, which are inadmissible under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.

  • December 16, 2024

    Expert Excluded, Cannot Opine On How Woman Was Injured In Fall At Restaurant

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An accident reconstructionist retained by a woman who alleges that she was injured after falling from a booth at a Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurant is inadmissible, a federal magistrate judge in Puerto Rico ruled, because he did not reach his conclusions through a reliable methodology.

  • December 16, 2024

    Judge: Experts Can Opine On Standard Officer Training In Excessive Force Case

    SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge on Dec. 13 ruled that two experts on officer training and policies can testify on behalf of a man suing King County, Wash., and one of its police officers as a representative to the estate of a man who was fatally shot by the officer.

  • December 16, 2024

    Judge Agrees To Limit Testimony Offered In Defense Of Man Charged With Wire Fraud

    SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge partially granted and partially denied the government’s motion to exclude portions of testimony from multiple experts retained by a man criminally charged with four counts of wire fraud.

  • December 16, 2024

    Judge Bars Prosecutorial Standards Expert For Man Wrongfully Convicted Of Murder

    PITTSBURGH — An expert’s testimony fails to support allegations that a prosecutor maliciously solicited and relied on false testimony to secure a conviction for a man who was later exonerated after serving 13 years in prison for three counts of murder stemming from a fire in an apartment complex, a federal magistrate judge ruled in granting a motion to exclude.

  • December 16, 2024

    Florida Appeals Court: Blood Alcohol Levels Expert Wrongly Excluded At DUI Trial

    TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida appeals court on Dec. 13 ordered a new trial for a man convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol after finding that the trial court wrongly excluded testimony from a clinical pharmacologist and toxicologist who would opine that the man’s likely blood alcohol level (BAL) at the time of his arrest was under the legal limit.

  • December 13, 2024

    Medical Expert Retained To Opine On Woman’s Medical Needs After Crash Can Testify

    OXFORD, Miss. — A federal magistrate judge in Mississippi on Dec. 12 agreed to strike one statement from the report of an expert hired to opine on the medical condition of a woman suing for injuries sustained in a car accident but otherwise denied the woman’s motion to exclude his testimony.

  • December 12, 2024

    Va. Federal Judge Rules On Admissibility Of Dueling Trademark Valuation Experts

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge in Virigina ruled that an expert retained by a company suing its competitor for trademark infringement will provide testimony beyond the scope of a juror and denied a defense motion to exclude the testimony but found that a competing expert failed to properly explain his methodology for his conclusions and granted the plaintiff company’s motion to exclude in part.

  • December 12, 2024

    Judge: Expert Can Opine On Lost Wages, Household Services In Accident Case

    HAMMOND, Ind. — An expert retained by a man who was injured in a car accident can testify on alleged economic losses but may not opine on causation, an Indiana federal judge ruled in denying a motion to exclude filed by a trucking company and its employee.

  • December 11, 2024

    Medical Expert May Testify On Surgical Needs But Portions Of Testimony Excluded

    DENVER — A Colorado federal judge agreed to limit the testimony of an expert retained by a man who alleges that he was injured in a car crash after his insurer argued that portions of the expert’s proposed testimony is outside the scope of a court’s order reopening discovery and allowing for a supplemental expert report.

  • December 10, 2024

    2nd Circuit Says Appeals On Exclusion Of Causation Experts To ‘Be Heard In Tandem’

    NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that four appeals filed by parents who allege that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) but saw their claims dismissed after a New York federal judge in two separate orders excluded their causation experts “be heard in tandem by the same panel.”

  • December 10, 2024

    Law Enforcement Agents Can Offer Expert Testimony In Criminal Case, Judge Says

    OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma federal judge on Dec. 9 declined to exclude three experts named by the federal government who will offer testimony in a drug conspiracy and money laundering case, finding that their testimony meets admissibility standards and is not unduly prejudicial.

  • December 05, 2024

    Fingerprint Expert Properly Admitted In Case; No Error In Failure To Hold Hearing

    CINCINNATI — A district court did not abuse its discretion in rejecting a motion to exclude a fingerprint expert from testifying during a criminal trial, nor was there an error in its answer to a jury’s question, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said.

  • December 04, 2024

    Judge Grants Contempt Hearing In Asbestos Dispute Over Expert Moline, Northwell

    NEW YORK — A New York justice on Dec. 3 issued an order scheduling a show-cause hearing on a motion seeking to hold an asbestos expert and her employer in contempt of court for “brazenly” ignoring court rulings after the state’s high court denied leave to appeal a decision compelling production of the identities of participants in expert Jacqueline Moline’s asbestos-talc studies.

  • December 04, 2024

    6th Circuit Vacates Certification Of 10 Classes In Nissan Auto Braking Case

    CINCINNATI — Consumers who allege that various vehicles manufactured by Nissan North America Inc. and Nissan Motor Company Ltd. (together, Nissan) have defective automatic braking systems failed to sufficiently establish commonality when moving for class certification, and the lower court failed to perform the appropriate analysis of challenged expert testimony, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, vacating a trial court’s certification of 10 classes.

  • December 03, 2024

    Expert Shouldn’t Testify On Prevention Of Death, Federal Magistrate Says

    PITTSBURGH — A federal magistrate judge recommended that an expert be barred from opining that earlier medical intervention would have prevented a man’s fatal overdose at a drug rehabilitation center but otherwise recommended the denial of the center’s motion to exclude three experts under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.

  • December 02, 2024

    Dog Supplement Maker Seeks High Court Consideration Of Class Certification

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The makers of Cosequin, a pet supplement, filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether expert testimony relied on to support a motion for class certification must satisfy the requirements for admissibility.

  • November 26, 2024

    Experts Featured In Mealey's Daubert Report

    Entries are ordered in alphabetical order of the expert in each area of expert testimony.  Experts appeared in the March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November 2024 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.