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Mealey's Daubert

  • March 07, 2025

    10th Circuit Finds Expert Did Not Support Causation; Summary Judgment Affirmed

    DENVER — A representative of an estate’s named experts in a suit against a skilled nursing facility failed to show that the facility’s actions caused one of its residents to fall, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, affirming a district court’s summary judgment award and ruling that the court did not err in failing to hold a hearing to consider the experts’ admissibility under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.

  • March 06, 2025

    Life-Care Planner Can Testify In Case Alleging Injuries From Defective Air Bag

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A life-care planner can testify for a man who alleges that he was severely injured by a defective air bag, a Florida federal judge found March 5, rejecting arguments that his testimony should be excluded as duplicative of the man’s treating physicians.

  • March 06, 2025

    Magistrate Judge: Experts Can Opine On Employability, Lost Income After Fall

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal magistrate judge largely denied two motions to exclude expert testimony presented on behalf of a man who says he is unable to work after falling at a restaurant after finding that experts meet the admissibility standards set in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Federal Rule of Evidence 702.

  • March 06, 2025

    Class Certification Petition In Pet Supplement Case Denied By U.S. High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the makers of Cosequin, a pet supplement, who asked the justices to consider whether expert testimony relied on to support a motion for class certification must satisfy the requirements for admissibility.

  • March 06, 2025

    Judge Rules On Motions To Bar Experts From Testifying In Honey Production Spat

    ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge denied three motions to exclude expert testimony in a case involving the effects of herbicides on a beekeeping and honey-producing operation and partially granted a fourth motion, finding that an expert cannot speculate on causation or answer questions on a hypothetical situation.

  • March 05, 2025

    Treating Doctors Survive Motions To Exclude In Car Crash Injury Dispute

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The treating physicians of a man who alleges that he was injured in a car accident may testify on his treatment, prognosis and future treatment, a New Mexico federal magistrate judge ruled in denying two motions to exclude their testimony.

  • March 03, 2025

    Mass. High Court Upholds Procedural Rulings In Rape, Murder Case, Denies New Trial

    BOSTON — Nine years after a jury convicted Philip Chism for the rape and murder of his teacher, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied his quest for a reduced sentence and a new trial, upholding most of a trial court’s discovery and expert witness rulings and finding that any errors that occurred were not prejudicial to Chism.

  • February 27, 2025

    Judge: Expert In Criminal Case Can Opine On Tactics Used During Police Interview

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An expert may testify on “the 81 interrogation tactics” that a man charged with second-degree murder encountered “before ultimately making inculpatory statements,” a New Mexico federal judge said Feb. 26 in rejecting the federal government’s motion to exclude.

  • February 27, 2025

    Judge Certifies Class Accusing Loan App Operator Of Concealing Fees

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge certified a class of California residents accusing a consumer loan app operator of concealing certain fees while operating as an unlicensed lender in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and California finance laws, denied the app operator’s motion to exclude a plaintiffs’ witness and granted in part the defendant’s motion for summary judgment as to claims regarding its performance fees.

  • February 26, 2025

    Sig Sauer Wants En Banc Rehearing On Experts Ruling In Pistol Design Defect Case

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that expert testimony on causation is not needed in a complex design defect case “misapprehended Kentucky law,” a gun manufacturer argues in a Feb. 25 petition for an en banc rehearing of a recent split decision that found that while a district court properly excluded expert testimony on causation, it erred in excluding design defect testimony and reversed an award of summary judgment.

  • February 25, 2025

    9th Circuit Finds No Error In Convictions, Sentencing Of Theranos’ Holmes, Balwani

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 24 affirmed the convictions, sentences and restitution orders against Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes and former Theranos Chief Operating Officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, finding no error in multiple decisions by the trial court that the pair raised as arguments on appeal.

  • February 25, 2025

    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 January and February 2025 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.

  • February 25, 2025

    Judge Denies Motion To Certify Class Of Timeshare Purchasers, Bars Rebuttal Witness

    ORLANDO, Fla. — An expert testifying on behalf of a timeshare company can testify that class certification is unnecessary for military members who allege that the timeshare contract violated the law, but the expert retained by those miliary members is barred because his report was untimely, a Florida federal judge ruled, also denying the motion for class certification.

  • February 25, 2025

    Exclusion Of Expert Was Too Harsh Of A Sanction, Tennessee Appeals Court Says

    JACKSON, Tenn. — A Tennessee trial court failed to show that a woman’s violation of a discovery order “was contumacious, intentional, blatant, or otherwise so egregious as to justify the harshest sanction available, i.e., exclusion of [her] expert and dismissal of her lawsuit,” a state appeals court held, reversing the exclusion of the witness and award of summary judgment.

  • February 24, 2025

    Experts Out In Legal Malpractice Case After Judge Finds Testimony Unreliable

    EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge on Feb. 23 found that two experts retained by a law firm in an insurer’s suit over alleged legal malpractice cannot testify because their conclusions and opinions are not reliable under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.

  • February 24, 2025

    Judge: Both Experts Can Offer Limited Testimony In Unfair Competition Dispute

    ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge denied dueling motions to exclude experts retained in an unfair competition suit involving electronic slot machines, but he noted that many of the objections were rendered moot following concessions made during a hearing to determine the admissibility of the experts under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.

  • February 21, 2025

    Police Officer Can Testify As Expert In Drug Dealing Practices, Del. Judge Says

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware police detective can testify as a drug dealing expert in an upcoming criminal trial, a Delaware state court judge ruled, rejecting arguments that his testimony fails to meet the admissibility standard of federal and state law.

  • February 21, 2025

    Experts Properly Admitted To Testify On Cause Of Man’s Death, Opine On Prevention

    MIAMI — There was no error in a lower court allowing experts to testify for the estate of a man who died from carbon monoxide poisoning, a Florida appellate court ruled, affirming a verdict against the company that rented the man equipment that he used to strip hardwood floors in an enclosed space.

  • February 19, 2025

    Federal Judge Excludes Expert In Vaccine Mandate Case, Grants Summary Judgment

    PHILADELPHIA — An expert retained by a group of former employees at a school who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine cannot testify because the “misconstruction of the exhibits cited in his report undermine his reliability as it pertains to vaccine efficacy,” a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled, also granting summary judgment to the school.

  • February 18, 2025

    Court Won’t Require Judge To Explain Ruling Excluding AI-Obtained Evidence

    CLEVELAND — A trial judge does not need to explain why he suppressed evidence after a suspect successfully argued that it was obtained through a warrant that relied on artificial intelligence facial recognition software that a company itself admits is not reliable, an Ohio appeals court said in denying a motion seeking to direct the judge to issue findings of fact.

  • February 18, 2025

    Judge Partially Excludes Experts In Injury Case But Allows Case To Move Forward

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal judge in South Carolina partially granted a motion to exclude experts in a lawsuit alleging an injury at a Target store but denied the company’s motion for summary judgment.

  • February 13, 2025

    Florida Federal Judge Admits Expert On Use Of Force In Case Against Deputy, Sheriff

    TAMPA, Fla. — An expert retained by police officers in an excessive force and false arrest case meets the admissibility standards of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. but is barred from offering legal conclusions, a Florida federal judge ruled.

  • February 12, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Finds Alternative Design Ideas Speculative, Bars Testimony

    DALLAS — Experts retained to opine on a safer alternative design to a forklift involved in a workplace accident cannot testify, a Texas federal magistrate judge held, because the “proposed alternatives amount to speculative concepts, which is insufficient to rise to the level of an admissible expert opinion.”

  • February 11, 2025

    Federal Circuit: New Judge Needed In Patent Row After Expert Testimony Issues

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ordered a new trial on patent infringement to be held in front of a different judge in a North Carolina federal court, holding that the judge who previously oversaw a patent dispute between two biomedical companies repeatedly made statements that could call into question his appearance of fairness in the case.

  • February 11, 2025

    Recommendations Made On Experts’ Admissibility In Maritime Accident Case

    MIAMI — A federal magistrate judge in Florida recommended that a cruise ship operator’s motion to exclude expert witnesses be granted in part and that a motion to exclude the company’s medical expert be denied and a motion to exclude a rebuttal witness be granted, but he noted that some of the more persuasive arguments for exclusion were not raised by the parties.