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

Mealey's Daubert

August 11, 2025
Talc, Other Expert Opinions Largely Admitted In Dentist’s Asbestos Suit

LOS ANGELES — A California judge said punitive damages will be bifurcated according to California law but otherwise admitted testimony in a former dentist’s asbestos personal injury case, saying that experts may call upon training and experience and that studies on which they rely need not be identical to real world situations. In a trial brief, a dental supply company told the court that any potential exposure from its periodontal packs in the late 1960s and 1970s would have been too small to cause mesothelioma.
August 08, 2025
Expert Withdrawn After AI Use Causes ‘Litany’ of Errors in False Claims Suit

SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge in Utah in an Aug. 7 docket-only order denied as moot a motion to exclude expert testimony after the plaintiff withdrew the expert report following disclosures that the expert’s use of artificial intelligence had led to fabricated quotations, citations and regulatory references.
August 08, 2025
10th Circuit: Rule 702 Ruling Wrongly Excluded Evidence, Not Just Expert Witness

DENVER — A district court incorrectly expanded a ruling on a motion to exclude under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 to bar a man who alleges that a former employer violated trade secret laws from presenting evidence and fact witnesses on lost wages damages at trial, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held.
August 08, 2025
Idaho Federal Judge Grants Motion To Exclude Expert In Patent Dispute

BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge in Idaho ruled on the admissibility of expert testimony in a patent dispute, finding that certain testimony is now moot and that one expert is not qualified to testify.
August 07, 2025
Judge Finds Proposed Expert Testimony Irrelevant After Certain Claims Dismissed

TACOMA, Wash. — After granting a motion to dismiss a man’s negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED) claim, a Washington federal judge found that testimony from experts retained by a man who sued after his wife died from surgical complications is admissible as irrelevant under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
August 05, 2025
3rd Circuit Says Causation Expert Testimony Not Needed In Gun Design Defect Case

PHILADELPHIA — With instructions to “not underestimate jurors,” the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed that a district court correctly excluded causation testimony from two firearm experts but found that the court erred in awarding summary judgment for a gun manufacturer because “[g]iven the other admissible evidence, a jury is well equipped to figure out what caused this gun to fire.”
August 01, 2025
Mass. Federal Judge Says Expert Can Testify In Dispute Over Rental Car Coverage

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge has ruled that an expert retained by policyholders suing their insurers for prematurely terminating their rental car benefits can testify, finding that he is admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and that any potential bias goes to the weight or the credibility of his testimony.
August 01, 2025
AFFF Defendants: Plaintiffs’ Experts Are Inadmissible Under Rule Of Evidence

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The defendants in the multidistrict litigation (MDL) for the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) filed a reply brief in South Carolina federal court on July 31 arguing that the court should exclude the opinions of three of the plaintiffs’ experts in three cases in the MDL because they are inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
July 30, 2025
College Tennis Player Class Certified In Suit Challenging NCAA Prize Money Rules

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina denied motions to exclude opinions from two experts and certified a class of college tennis players challenging the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s rules that limit the amount of prize money Division I players can accept when they win noncollegiate tennis tournaments.
July 30, 2025
Federal Circuit Orders New Trial On Validity, Damages In Lighting Patent Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Texas wrongly prevented a defendant lighting company from presenting evidence of the invalidity of a plaintiff patent holder’s lighting patents, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, finding that the error makes a new trial on invalidity and damages necessary.
July 29, 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 and July 2025 issues of Mealey’s Daubert Report.
July 29, 2025
Series Of Motions To Exclude Experts In Pelvic Mesh Case Denied By Ky. Federal Judge

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky federal judge presiding over a long-running case against a pelvic mesh manufacturer denied four separate motions to exclude experts filed by the manufacturer and a woman who says she was injured by the mesh, most recently ruling that the woman’s expert can opine on whether Ethicon Inc. met industry standards.
July 28, 2025
‘Sensitive Skin’ Mislabeling Class Action Was Properly Certified, 9th Circuit Says

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 25 affirmed a court’s certification of a class action against Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. (J&J) for allegedly misrepresenting the benefits of a sensitive skin care product in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws, finding that the lower court properly certified the class based on the plaintiff’s damages expert and the likelihood of making classwide liability findings.
July 22, 2025
Suit Over Allegedly Outdated Pension Assumptions Mostly Survives Summary Judgment

SAN FRANCISCO — A putative class action challenging the use of allegedly outdated assumptions to calculate annuities for married pension plan participants is proceeding toward a bench trial after a California federal judge mostly denied the defendants’ motion for summary judgment and denied their motion to exclude the plaintiffs’ expert.
July 18, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Hip Implant Device Manufacturer’s Summary Judgment Award

CINCINNATI — A lower court properly granted a manufacturer of a hip implant device summary judgment after finding that a man’s expert witnesses to support his claim that the device was defective were properly excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held.
July 18, 2025
D.C. Appeals Court: Expert Testimony Was Not Needed For Slip-And-Fall Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia appeals court on July 17 held that “a lay juror could determine, from their common knowledge and everyday experience, whether” a janitorial company “exercised reasonable care in warning passersby of the hazard caused by the wet floor,” reversing a decision by a lower court that failure to present expert testimony was fatal to a woman’s case.
July 17, 2025
Expert Who Testified On Intimate Partner Violence In Assault Case Properly Admitted

CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing an expert to testify about intimate partner violence in a criminal case, the state Supreme Court said, finding that the testimony met the state’s admissibility standards.
July 17, 2025
Judge: Police Procedure Expert Can Testify For Comedian Alleging Wrongful Arrest

MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida denied a police officer’s motion to exclude a police practices expert from testifying for a comedian, who alleges that he was wrongfully arrested, based on assurances from the comedian that the expert will opine on whether the officer violated professional standards and will not offer legal conclusions.
July 16, 2025
5th Circuit: Causation Experts In Deepwater Horizon Case Properly Excluded

NEW ORLEANS — A Mississippi federal court did not err in awarding summary judgment to BP Exploration & Production and its affiliate after finding that a man’s experts retained to opine on how his injuries were connected to exposure to chemicals during remediation activities following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill were inadmissible, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held.
July 16, 2025
Judge Issues Sweeping Order On Expert Witnesses In Lead Smelter Litigation Saga

ST. LOUIS — A federal judge in Missouri has issued an order on multiple motions to exclude filed by both the plaintiffs and the defendants, ruling that portions of expert testimony are excluded in a long-running lawsuit brought by Catholic clergywomen and Peruvian children who allege they have been injured by a lead smelter operated by an American company in Peru.
July 15, 2025
Delaware Supreme Court Says Expert Testimony Improperly Admitted In Zantac Case

WILMINGTON, Del. — A lower court “erred in adopting a standard that favored or presumed the admissibility of expert testimony,” the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in an interlocutory appeal, finding that the trial court was wrong to deny a series of motions to exclude testimony from experts who opined that Zantac containing ranitidine can cause 10 types of cancer.
July 15, 2025
Judge Limits Some Experts In Case Alleging Defective Gas Container Caused Fire

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida agreed to limit testimony from certain experts retained by a woman who alleges that a faulty gas container caused a gas vapor to ignite, causing serious burn injuries.
July 15, 2025
Dental Expert Can Testify For Government On Dentist’s Prescribing Practices

TULSA, Okla. — An Oklahoma federal judge rejected arguments from a dentist accused of violating the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) that testimony from an expert retained by the government is inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
July 11, 2025
1 Expert In, Another Excluded In Case Filed By Former Inmate Over Medical Care

CHICAGO — An Illinois judge ruled on a pair of motions to exclude expert testimony in a case filed by a former inmate who alleges that the deliberate indifference by the staff at a correctional center caused him to suffer permanent liver damage.
July 11, 2025
Expert Cannot Opine That Man Suffered From Sexsomnia During Alleged Rape

WILMINGTON, Del. — A sleep medicine expert cannot testify that a man accused of rape suffers from sexsomnia, a form of parasomnia, and had no conscious awareness or control of the alleged conduct, a Delaware judge ruled, noting that the ruling was an issue of first impression in the state.