Doctors commit malpractice when they breach the standard they should follow when caring for a patient. The applicable standard of care is a matter of expert opinion. Reversing a summary judgment in favor of a doctor, the Georgia Court of Appeals recently emphasized that it is the job of a jury, not the trial judge, […]

Whether experts should be allowed to testify when they have a financial stake in the outcome of litigation is a question that divides courts. In an unusual case, a judge in the Western District of Virginia excluded the expert testimony of a witness who sold a litigation interest in a claim brought by his company. […]

The expert witness list has been publicly released in the murder trial of a former Dallas Police Officer who shot and killed a man in his own apartment after mistaking him for an intruder. The Killing On September 16, 2018, Amber Guyger, 30, was off-duty but in her police uniform when she shot and killed […]

Expert witnesses have finished tangling, at least for the moment, in the North Carolina redistricting dispute. After a narrow majority of the Supreme Court refused to impose constitutional barriers to partisan redistricting, federal challenges to political gerrymandering in North Carolina became impossible to pursue. Challengers are now basing their claims on the state constitution, a […]

A New Jersey federal court judge will determine the fate of almost 12,000 lawsuits that claim that Johnson & Johnson’s talc-containing baby powder causes women to develop ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.  The Lawsuits Plaintiffs from all around the United States have filed lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson, alleging that the talc that is contained in […]

The National Registry of Exonerations recently released its report on Exonerations in 2018. Importantly, it found that official misconduct and misleading forensic evidence were the leading causes of wrongful convictions. 2018 Statistics on Wrongful Convictions There were 151 exonerations that occurred in the United States in 2018. The exonerations were for the following crimes: 66 […]

A prominent New Jersey construction expert witness has reached a settlement that will vacate the court order that would have required him to pay over $22,000 for his refusal to be videotaped during a deposition.  The Refusal to Be Videotaped Michael Panish was retained as a critical liability expert by the Ruehl family after Mrs. […]

An ideal expert witness is neutral. A neutral expert has no financial ties to either party in a dispute, apart from being retained to provide an expert opinion. Since they have no financial interest in the outcome of a court case, juries generally regard neutral experts as more credible than experts who have a financial […]

Chester Nugent died from a combination of sepsis, sacral decubitus, and malnutrition. Sepsis is a condition caused by the body’s response to an infection. In Nugent’s case, the infection was caused by a bedsore. Sacral decubitus refers to an ulcer, including a bedsore, near the spine in the lower back. Three days after undergoing hip […]