Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Mississippi Supreme Court Embraces Daubert, Rejects Frye

Earlier this year, Mississippi amended its state evidentiary rule on expert testimony to conform to Fed. R. Evid. 702, as itself amended in light of Daubert and Kumho Tire. The other shoe has now dropped, in an 4-3 opinion from the Mississippi Supreme Court expressly holding that the rule change signals the state's adoption of Daubert and abandonment of Frye. See Mississippi Transp. Comm'n v. McLemore, No. 2001-CA-01039-SCT (Miss. Sup. Ct. Oct. 16, 2003).

posted by pn at 10:51 AM  

Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.