Articles Posted in Expert Witness Rules

Psychological records from therapy sessions prepared in the course of treatment are still privileged. See Supreme Court opinion below. The Shigley Law Firm represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was…

Admissibility of expert testimony in both federal and state courts in Georgia is now governed by the Daubert standards. See Federal Rule of Evidence 702; O.C.G.A § 24-9-67.1 (effective 2/16/05); Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993); General Electric Co. v. Joiner, 522 U.S. 136, 118…

At least two trial judges have declined to apply the newly enacted Daubert rules for expert witnesses retroactively. Both Judge Melody Clayton in the State Court of Cobb County (Marietta) and Judge Hermann Coolidge in the State Court of Chatham County (Savannah) reached the same conclusion. Applying the new standards for expert testimony in an…

Arguments have been raised to the effect that the enactment of Daubert standards in Senate Bill 3 is unconstitutional on grounds of violation of separation of powers, equal protection and due process. The constitutional arguments set forth below are from a brief filed by David E. Tuszynski in the case of Mason v. Home Depot,…

Critics of Daubert see science as a contentious process, rather than a a set of universal facts deduced by logic, and argue that courts are now demanding more of individual scientists and engineers than is expected of them in their own research and practice. A synthesis of the two views of science can be achieved…

As Georgia lawyers and judges wander into the quagmire of the Daubert Trilogy, we must look behind the curtain of the Wizard of Oz and begin to learn something of the epistomology of science. Insofar as the Daubert decision is based largely upon the Justice Brennan’s summary of the Karl Popper’s premise of theory-testing through…

For years Georgia lawyers practicing primarily in state rather than federal courts were able to avoid the budensome, expensive and sometimes absurd requirements of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), and its progeny. Now, however, the dam has broken and all civil cases involving expert testimony…

Beginning with Chief Justice Rehnquist’s dissent in Daubert, there has been concern about trying to turn trial judges into “amateur scientists” despite their lack of preparation for evaluating scientific theories, methodology, and the social and institutional context in which the work of science is performed. Clearly, trial lawyers and judges must learn enough about science…

Georgia’s tort reform bill (SB 3, effective in all pending cases effective 2/16/05) includes the adoption of Federal Rule of Evidence 702 regarding expert testimony, in civil cases only. Some have observed that “junk science” is now good enough to support capital punishment in Georgia, but not good enough to require an insurance company to…