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Mealey's Daubert

  • March 27, 2025

    Judge Limits Testimony Of Expert In Cases Alleging Man Died After Leaving Hospital

    ALEXANDRIA, La. — An expert retained by a medical center cannot opine on whether a hospital action violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) but is otherwise qualified to testify, a Louisiana federal judge held.

  • March 25, 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 and March 2025 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.

  • March 25, 2025

    Treating Doctors’ Opinions On Injury Causation Are Unreliable, Judge Finds

    DETROIT — Two treating physicians for a woman who alleges that she was injured when a charter bus on which she was a passenger collided with a semitruck cannot testify on causation after a Michigan federal judge found their opinions to be unreliable.

  • March 25, 2025

    Sig Sauer Loses En Banc Review Bid For Experts Ruling In Gun Design Defect Case

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an en banc hearing to review its ruling 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, rejecting a gun manufacturer’s argument that the ruling that expert testimony on causation is not needed in a complex design defect case “misapprehended Kentucky law.”

  • March 13, 2025

    COMMENTARY: The Role Of The Expert Witness In International Litigation And Arbitration Proceedings

    By Nikki Coles and Jon Nicklin

  • March 21, 2025

    Subrogee Insurer’s Expert Can Opine On Origin Of Fire, Judge Finds

    CINCINNATI — A couple lost their effort to toss a complaint alleging that a fire that originated in their yard spread to a neighbor’s home after an Ohio federal judge ruled that an expert retained by the neighbor and her insurance company is admissible to opine on causation.

  • March 21, 2025

    Judge Excludes Expert In Stock Price Case, Grants Test Maker Summary Judgment

    SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge in Utah granted a diagnostic test manufacturer summary judgment in a lawsuit by stockholders for allegedly misrepresenting the accuracy of its COVID-19 tests after the judge found that the stockholders’ expert could not prove loss causation.

  • March 20, 2025

    Expert In Car Crash Case Can Testify On Future Lost Wages, Not Future Medical Care

    SEATTLE — An expert retained in a personal injury suit stemming from a car accident can opine on a man’s future loss earnings but is prohibited from “parroting the opinion of a non-testifying expert” on future medical costs, a Washington federal magistrate judge said.

  • March 20, 2025

    CPA Can Testify On Pumpkin Production Losses, Florida Federal Judge Says

    TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge denied a motion to exclude an expert retained in a breach of contract dispute, finding that a certified public account can testify on the amount of damages incurred when packing equipment allegedly failed.

  • March 18, 2025

    Judge Says Expert Is Excluded As Irrelevant In Employment Discrimination Case

    CHICAGO — An expert who will opine that a woman was not at fault for a strategy coding error that her former employer cited as the reason for her termination cannot testify because his opinions are irrelevant to her claims for gender and race discrimination, an Illinois federal judge ruled March 17.

  • March 17, 2025

    Judge Finds Insurers Are Liable For Damages Caused By Earth Movement

    MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota has granted the motion of an insured and largely denied the cross-motion of its insurers for summary judgment on liability in the insured’s breach of contract suit seeking damages related to the cracking and settling of reinforced equipment pads in its printing facility, finding that the damages were caused by earth movement.

  • March 13, 2025

    N.M. Federal Judge Limits Testimony From Experts Retained By Man Shot By Police

    LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A New Mexico federal judge limited the testimony from an expert on police practices and an expert on medical care who were retained by a man alleging that he was injured in a police shootout, finding that certain portions of their proposed testimony were inadmissible under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.

  • March 12, 2025

    Expert Retained In Sexual Abuse Case Can Testify In Cases Against Schools

    ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A psychiatric expert retained by parents suing school districts and others after their visually impaired children were sexually abused can testify, a Michigan federal judge ruled, but she limited his testimony in the cases that were consolidated for pretrial purposes.

  • 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.