Mealey's Daubert
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July 05, 2024
Texas Appeals Court: Biomechanical Engineer Testimony Properly Excluded
DALLAS — While Texas courts do allow biomechanical engineers to offer expert testimony in car accident cases, a trial court did not err in excluding an expert who did not offer any evidence that the injuries allegedly sustained in a crash were inconsistent with the physical forces created in the collision, a state appeals court ruled in affirming a $700,000 verdict.
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July 05, 2024
Expert On Drug Testing Regulations Cannot Offer Legal Conclusions, Judge Says
PHILADELPHIA — An expert retained by a practicing Muslim who is suing Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) for violating his constitutional rights by insisting that he drink water during Ramadan to undergo a drug test cannot offer legal conclusions, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled, limiting the expert’s testimony.
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June 28, 2024
COMMENTARY: Courts Must, As Recently Reminded, Follow The Law In Rule 702 Expert Testimony Determinations
By Erin Sheley
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July 02, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms Use Of Consumer Survey In Trademark Dispute
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California did not abuse discretion by admitting a likelihood-of-confusion survey as expert evidence in a jury trial that ultimately found no likelihood of confusion between two trademarks used by business financing companies, a panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held July 1, affirming the grant of final judgment in the defendant company’s favor.
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June 27, 2024
Federal Judge: Both Parties’ Causation Experts Are Out In Boating Injury Case
NEW ORLEANS — Reports by dueling experts who offer opposite opinions on who is at fault for a boating accident “are deficient in identical ways,” a Louisiana federal judge ruled, granting both parties’ motions to exclude.
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June 27, 2024
Deputies, Man Settle Excessive Force Claims After Judge Allows Expert Testimony
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge ordered that a case alleging excessive force by police be dismissed after being told that the parties had reached an agreement two days after ruling that an expert retained by the defendants could testify that the police deputies acted in accordance with policing standards and protocols.
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June 26, 2024
Utah Appeals Court Orders New Trial After Finding Expert Wrongly Excluded
SALT LAKE CITY — An expert retained by a woman in a medical negligence suit in a Utah state court was wrongly excluded from offering an opinion on causation, a state appeals court ruled, reversing a grant of judgment as a matter of law and remanding for a new trial.
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June 26, 2024
Special Master Rejects J&J’s Motion To Inspect Asbestos Expert’s Lab
TRENTON, N.J. — The special master in the New Jersey federal court multidistrict litigation involving Johnson & Johnson talc denied a motion to inspect asbestos expert William Longo’s lab, saying the “unprecedented” request seeks irrelevant information and would be unduly annoying.
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June 25, 2024
Judge: Securities Class Claims Against Crypto Firm Barred By Repose Statute
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California largely granted a motion from an issuer of crypto tokens and its CEO to dismiss class action securities claims against them, finding that the lead investor plaintiff failed to show that the crypto token at issue was first offered after the cutoff date for a statute of repose in the Securities Act of 1933.
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June 21, 2024
Summary Judgment Bid Fails In ERISA Row Focused On Fund Managers’ ESG Efforts
FORT WORTH, Texas — A bench trial is scheduled to start June 24 in a high-profile class action over environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations and the purported proxy voting activism of investment management firms, with a Texas federal judge denying the defendants’ summary judgment motion on June 20.
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June 21, 2024
Experts Can Testify In Car Accident Case; Arguments ‘Fodder For Cross-Examination’
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An expert’s failure to consider certain data is not grounds for exclusion but “best presented on cross-examination and resolved by a jury,” a federal magistrate judge in New Mexico ruled, denying a motion to exclude filed in a case stemming from injuries from a car accident.
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June 21, 2024
Asbestos Expert Warns: Employee Deposition Threatens His ‘Golden Years’
ATLANTA — A non-testifying employee of asbestos expert William Longo and his lab warned that a magistrate judge’s ruling denying a motion to quash an untimely and irrelevant subpoena would doom him to spending his “golden years” giving depositions in asbestos litigation across the country.
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June 21, 2024
No Error In Expert’s Testimony In Fatal Arson Case, 10th Circuit Says
DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a man’s conviction for two counts of second-degree murder and one count of arson in Oklahoma after finding that a trial court did not err in admitting expert testimony.
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June 20, 2024
Parties Debate Allowing New Causation Expert In ASD-ADHD MDL
NEW YORK — Defendants facing lawsuits by parents in the acetaminophen autism spectrum disorder-attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ASD-ADHD) multidistrict litigation who allege that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes autism or ADHD say the parents’ arguments for allowing a new expert to testify are misplaced.
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June 19, 2024
Expert On Standard Of Medical Care Of Inmates Excluded, W.Va. Federal Judge Says
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A medical expert’s opinion that a detention center’s medical staff met the standard of care in their treatment of an inmate who suffered from opioid use disorder is inadmissible because the expert failed to base his conclusions on reliable principles or methods, a West Virginia federal judge found.
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June 14, 2024
J&J Can Depose Asbestos Expert Longo’s Employee, Special Master Says
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson entities may depose the lab employee who performed the testing on which expert William Longo relies, the special master in New Jersey involved in the federal multidistrict litigation involving asbestos-talc claims said.
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June 14, 2024
Trial Court Erred In Excluding Experts In Design Defect Case, 11th Circuit Says
ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a trial court “applied an incorrect legal standard in excluding portions of the experts’ testimony and that this error infected its summary judgment decision,” reversing and remanding a design defect and injury case stemming from a fall out of a climbing tree stand while hunting.
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June 13, 2024
Insurers’ Motion For Summary Judgment Denied In Row Over Jet Insurance Coverage
SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge denied summary judgment to insurers in their suit seeking rescission of a policy covering a private jet but granted in part the jet owners’ motion for partial summary judgment regarding their reliance “on a misrepresentation theory,” finding that the insurers failed to show that the insureds made misrepresentations about the identity of the jet’s pilots.
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June 12, 2024
Judge Nixes Government’s Bid To Stop Expert’s Deposition In Camp Lejeune Case
RALEIGH, N.C. — On June 11, a federal magistrate judge in North Carolina denied a motion by the U.S. government that sought a protective order to prevent its expert, Christopher Portier, from providing deposition testimony, ruling that the government’s arguments regarding the burden of compliance with international and Italian law are “unavailing.”
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June 11, 2024
Testimony From Experts Retained In Crash Coverage Spat Limited By Federal Judge
DENVER — A Colorado federal judge on June 10 partially granted two motions to exclude experts retained by a woman injured in a car accident who sued an insurer for failing to fully cover her injuries and also granted the insurer’s motion for partial summary judgment.
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June 07, 2024
Experts In Metal-On-Metal Hip Implant Case Can Testify, Judge Says
OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal judge denied requests by defendants in a defective metal-on-metal hip implant case remanded from a multidistrict litigation to exclude testimony from two experts witnesses and grant them summary judgment.
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June 06, 2024
Judge Won’t Bar Experts, Admit Exhibits Ahead Of FTCA Asbestos Trial
SEATTLE — Facing an upcoming trial on take-home and environmental asbestos claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), a federal judge in Washington declined to preadmit certain exhibits or exclude expert testimony, finding the trio of motions premature or untimely.
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June 06, 2024
Judge Limits Testimony In Design Defect Case, Grants Partial Summary Judgment
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge partially dismissed a woman’s suit against a surgical stapler device manufacturer after finding that certain testimony from expert witnesses is inadmissible under the standards of Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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June 05, 2024
Asbestos Plaintiffs Warn Of Expert Oversight Motion’s ‘Massive Chilling Effect’
TRENTON, N.J. — Allowing Johnson & Johnson to compel plaintiff-side expert William Longo to perform testing under the gaze of defense experts would be a “patently unreasonable” and unprecedented step and likely have a “massive chilling effect on expert witnesses,” plaintiffs in the federal multidistrict asbestos-talc litigation argue in opposing a motion to compel.
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June 04, 2024
Camp Lejeune Plaintiffs: Court Should Deny Bid To Prevent Expert’s Deposition
RALEIGH, N.C. — The plaintiffs leadership group (PLG) in the Camp Lejeune water crisis litigation has filed an opposition brief in North Carolina federal court contending that because its expert, Christopher Portier, will provide “highly relevant testimony that is critical” to the case, the court should deny the U.S. government’s motion for a protective order to prevent Portier’s deposition.