Thursday, November 02, 2006

Experts May Not Testify on Direct to Reliance on Consultations with Colleagues, Florida Supreme Court Rules

The Florida Supreme Court held today that experts may not testify on direct examination that they relied on consultations with colleagues or other experts in forming their opinions. "We hold," said the court, "that such testimony is inadmissible because it impermissibly permits the testifying experts to bolster their opinions and creates the danger that the testifying experts will serve as conduits for the opinions of others who are not subject to cross-examination." See Linn v. Fossum, No. SC05-134 (Fla. Nov. 2, 2006).

This holding seems (um) rather sweeping. Here's the AP story.

posted by pn at 7:23 PM  

1 Comments:

Anonymous writes ...

This kind of flies in the face of the importance of peer review when rendering an opinion...

8:26 PM  

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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.