Mealey's Daubert : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Daubert

September 25, 2025
EcoFactor To High Court: Federal Circuit Wrong To Vacate Jury’s Patent Damages

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Google LLC on Sept. 24 waived its right to a respond to a smart thermostat company’s petition for a writ of certiorari in which the company argues that the en banc Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision to order a Texas federal judge hold a new trial on damages wrongly eschewed the jury’s factual findings in its favor.
September 24, 2025
Fracking Operator: Plaintiffs’ Experts Fail Standard Under Rule Of Evidence 702

PITTSBURGH — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed two reply briefs in Pennsylvania federal court seeking to exclude plaintiffs’ witnesses in a royalty dispute, arguing that neither expert meets the standard for admissibility under Federal Rule of Evidence 702. With regard to one of the experts, Barry Pulliam, the company insists that “given his admittedly questionable expertise,” the plaintiffs’ “attempt to slip Mr. Pulliam’s Count III opinions in the back door through hypotheticals fails.”
September 23, 2025
Experts Featured In Mealey's Daubert Report

Entries are in alphabetical order of the expert in each area of expert testimony. Experts appeared in the January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August and September 2025 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.
September 23, 2025
Expert Retained By City, Officials Can Testify But Only On Areas Of Expertise

EUGENE, Ore. — A federal judge in Oregon agreed to limit testimony from an expert retained in a police officer-related shooting case after finding that the expert’s education and experience do not allow him to testify on perception response time.
September 23, 2025
Okla. Federal Judge: Expert On Value Of Contaminated Cattle Ranch Can Testify

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — An Oklahoma federal judge denied a motion to exclude the testimony of an expert who opined on the property value of a ranch that was allegedly contaminated by a pipeline after finding that an expert who opined on the value of a property meets admissibility standards.
September 22, 2025
Illinois Federal Judge Agrees To Limit Life Care Planning Expert’s Testimony

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A life care planning expert retained in a medical negligence case can opine on the costs associated with the future care of a woman who alleges that her medical treatment was inadequate but cannot base that testimony on her selection of necessary medical codes, an Illinois federal judge ruled Sept. 19.
September 22, 2025
Expert Can Opine On Accuracy Of Drug Testing Results In Discrimination Dispute

RALEIGH, N.C. — A man who alleges that a pre-employment drug screening test is discriminatory because it yields inaccurate results from porous or curly hair types common in African Americans lost his bid on Sept. 19 to bar testimony from an expert retained by the employer, which opined that the positive result for cocaine in the man’s test was accurate, when a federal magistrate judge found that the man’s arguments went to the weight of the evidence.
September 19, 2025
Judge Limits Expert Testimony In Discrimination Suit Against School District

INDIANAPOLIS — Experts retained in a lawsuit brought by a transgender student who sued his school district for its refusal to allow him to use the bathroom of his choice cannot offer testimony that is irrelevant to the facts in dispute in the case, an Indiana federal judge ruled.
September 19, 2025
Prison Doctor Wins Summary Judgment After Expert Out In Deliberate Indifference Case

RICHMOND, Va. — An expert retained by a former inmate who alleges that delayed medical care worsened his injuries cannot testify after a federal judge in Virigina found that his report does not comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 and that his medical opinions are inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
September 19, 2025
Experts Out In Gun Design Defect Case; Manufacturer Wins Summary Judgment

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge granted summary judgment to a gun manufacturer after excluding two experts retained by a man who claims that his firearm accidently discharged and caused injuries.
September 18, 2025
J&J Wants Causation Experts, Longo’s Testing Excluded From Coordinated Talc Cases

LOS ANGELES — Following a partial win on upcoming bellwether trials, Johnson & Johnson entities asked the Los Angeles judge overseeing coordinated asbestos-talc ovarian cancer proceedings to exclude the plaintiffs’ general causation experts and expert William Longo’s testing and opinions, saying the experts twist and misreport findings and are not reliable.
September 16, 2025
Judge Certifies New York Class, Denies California Class In Elderberry Extract Suit

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge granted a motion to certify a New York state class accusing the maker of a dietary supplement that contains elderberry extract of deceiving consumers with misleading label statements, denied the motion as to a California class bringing claims for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) because the claims are barred due to a previous California suit, and denied a defense motion to exclude the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses.
September 16, 2025
Ladder Company Awarded Summary Judgment After Expert Deemed Inadmissible

ST. LOUIS — A ladder manufacturer secured a summary judgment award after a Missouri federal judge found that a man’s expert was unqualified to render an opinion on a manufacturing defect under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
September 15, 2025
Valsartan Special Master Won’t Exclude Expert Who Cited AI-Generated Sources

CAMDEN, N.J. — The special master in the valsartan, losartan and irbesartan hypertension drugs multidistrict litigation pending in a New Jersey federal court denied a motion to exclude an expert retained by a bellwether plaintiff, finding that the expert’s citation to nonexistent sources due to his use of artificial intelligence did not warrant exclusion.
September 11, 2025
Groups Urge 4th Circuit To Rehear En Banc Ethylene Oxide Case Over Disputed Expert

RICHMOND, Va. — Two groups have filed amicus curiae briefs in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in support of a petition for rehearing en banc sought by Union Carbide following a split opinion reversing a lower court’s ruling that had granted summary judgment on standing to Union Carbide in a lawsuit over exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO). In one amicus brief, Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ) contend that the Fourth Circuit majority applied an incorrect legal standard related to the admissibility of an expert under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
September 11, 2025
Government: Causation Lacking In Camp Lejeune Case, Experts Fail Evidence Standard

RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. government has filed a brief in support of a motion for partial summary judgment in the Camp Lejeune water crisis multidistrict litigation in North Carolina federal court arguing that the plaintiffs lack evidence supporting general causation as between exposure to dichloroethylene (DCE) and what are called Track 1 diseases. In addition to the government’s motion regarding DCE, it filed a raft of pleadings seeking to exclude multiple plaintiffs’ experts pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 702 in various individual actions that are part of the MDL.
September 10, 2025
Judge: Expert Retained By Ex-Employees Can Opine On Value Of Stock Options

NEW ORLEANS — An expert retained by former employees of a smoothie franchise company can testify on the value of stock options they allege were wrongfully revoked after they left the company, a Louisiana federal judge ruled Sept. 9 in denying a motion to exclude.
September 08, 2025
Drug Trafficking Expert Allowed In Criminal Case With Limited Testimony

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge largely denied a motion to exclude testimony from an expert on drug trafficking in a criminal case, though the judge agreed to bar testimony on the addictive nature of fentanyl statistics, finding that the testimony would be more prejudicial than probative.
September 05, 2025
Dueling Experts In Reason Fire Spread Can Testify, S.C. Federal Judge Says

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Experts offering opposing opinions on what caused a fire suppression system to fail during a fire that destroyed a restaurant can testify, a South Carolina federal judge ruled, because each expert meets the admissibility standards under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
September 05, 2025
Judge: Tech Company Established Ownership In IP Fight With TikTok Before Trial

SAN FRANCISCO — In a pair of orders, a California federal judge held that a China-based company adequately established that it owns the asserted copyrights and trade secrets in a “heavily litigated” dispute with TikTok Inc. and affiliated entities, including source code from an earlier video-editing app that preceded the plaintiff entity’s app. The judge found that there is no triable issue of fact as to the ownership of the code.
September 04, 2025
11th Circuit Upholds Drug Conviction, Agrees Expert’s Testimony Is Admissible

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected arguments from a man convicted of distributing fentanyl that led to a woman’s death that the trial court erred in allowing a Drug Enforcement Administration chemist to testify as an expert witness.
September 02, 2025
Disqualifying Lawyers Over Expert’s AI Misuse Too Harsh, Plaintiff Says

SALT LAKE CITY — Mistakes are inevitable in any long-running litigation, and since neither the plaintiff nor his attorneys are responsible for the artificial intelligence-generated errors in an expert’s report, disqualification would be an unnecessarily drastic remedy, attorneys told a federal judge in Utah in opposing a motion for sanctions.
September 02, 2025
Judge Allows Experts’ Testimony After ‘Every Exposure,’ Tobacco Opinion Challenges

HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii precluded two experts from testifying that every exposure or any exposure to asbestos is a substantial contributing factor in a man’s lung cancer but otherwise denied a motion to exclude the experts and admitted an expert set to testify about secondhand exposure to tobacco’s role in the disease.
August 26, 2025
Experts Featured In Mealey's Daubert Report

Entries are in alphabetical order of the expert in each area of expert testimony. Experts appeared in the January, February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2025 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.
August 26, 2025
Miss. Federal Judge: Experts On Damages From Alleged Copyright Infringement Out

JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi judge found that testimony from two experts retained by a local newspaper publisher is inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., granting separate motions filed by a digital news company accused of violating copyright laws.