New Damages Trial Granted Because Jury Ignored Expert Testimony

Bradley Myers sued Frank Sebastianelli and his business, Ameripride Fence Company, for personal injuries. Myers was employed as a truck driver. He delivered materials to Sebastianelli’s company. The only forklift at Ameripride was inoperable, so Myers attempted to unload the materials by hand. Bundles of pipe were placed on dunnage (similar to landscaping timbers) on […]

Illinois Court Refuses to Upset Conviction Based on Denial of Expert Eyewitness Identification Testimony

USA legal system conceptual series - Illinois

Andre Brown was convicted of murder on the strength of five eyewitnesses. He brought a postconviction challenge to his conviction alleging, among other grounds, that his right to due process was violated by the court’s decision to bar him from calling an expert in eyewitness identification. The trial court denied the challenge. The Illinois Appellate […]

Can an Expert Witness in a Criminal Case Give Remote Testimony?

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take lives, courts have been cautious about protecting trial participants from the risk of infection. Many trials have been delayed. When a criminal defendant is detained while awaiting trial, however, judges must weigh the defendant’s right to a speedy trial against the dangers of holding a trial. Criminal trials […]

Prosecutor Receives Qualified Immunity for Flawed Investigation of Bitemark Evidence

While expert evidence about bitemarks is widely discredited as unreliable, it has played an unfortunate role in assuring the wrongful convictions of innocent defendants. A defendant in Pennsylvania whose conviction was overturned because, (among other reasons) it was based on bitemark evidence, sued the police and prosecutors for building a case against her that they […]

Internist Is Qualified to Give Expert Testimony About Hospitalist’s Standard of Care in North Carolina

Many states have adopted laws that limit the universe of potential experts who are permitted to testify about the standard of care in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The question before the North Carolina Supreme Court in Da Silva v. WakeMed was whether an internist is qualified to give expert testimony about the standard of care […]

Judges Disagree Whether Expert Testimony Established that Vaccinations Caused SIDS

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently considered the testimony of two expert witnesses who disagreed whether vaccinations caused a baby’s death. A majority of the panel that heard the case agreed with the Court of Claims that the parents’ expert witness failed to establish causation. A dissenting judge questioned whether the […]

Maryland Adopts Daubert

In 1978, the Maryland Court of Appeals (Maryland’s highest court) decided Reed v. State. That decision adopted the Frye standard as Maryland’s approach to determining the admissibility of expert testimony. The issue before the Maryland Court of Appeals in the recent case of Rochkind v. Stevenson was whether to abandon the Frye-Reed standard in favor […]

Expert Witness Testimony Improperly Tossed Out

A California Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court’s summary judgment order and reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit after it concluded that the trial court had improperly thrown out “clear, reasoned” expert testimony. The Death In October 2013, Marleny Escobar attended her first prenatal appointment with her ob/gyn, Dr. Azmath Qureshi. She complained of […]

Improper Expert Testimony About Fabricated Sexual Assault Allegations Leads to New Trial

Montana is the latest state to reject the prosecution’s attempt to use expert witnesses to vouch for the credibility of accusers in criminal prosecutions. The Montana Supreme Court recently reversed a sexual assault conviction because an expert witness testified about the percentage of accusers who make false accusations. Facts of the Case Philip Grimshaw was […]

Court Rejects Expert Testimony in Support of Ranked-Choice Voting Challenge

In 2016, Maine became the first state to adopt a ranked-choice voting system for congressional offices. A few states use rank-choice voting in presidential primary elections, while several municipal governments use rank-choice voting in local elections. The Maine system has been tested by a series of lawsuits. The latest challenge relied on an expert’s testimony […]

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