Mealey’s Daubert Report

Mealey’s Daubert Report examines the complex issues surrounding Daubert, Kumho Tire, Joiner and other rulings that control expert admissibility while providing litigators with an essential means of quickly and easily monitoring this crucial area of law. Each month, our editors sift through new cases involving expert testimony and report on those that really make a difference. We select, compile and digest key rulings from across the country, so readers will know what to expect in any jurisdiction and can concentrate on the legal maneuvers necessary to win. Published monthly.
 
Featured Stories

Child Murder Conviction Overturned For Expert Exclusion, Confrontation Error

DALLAS — A Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 28 reversed a nanny’s conviction for the murder of one of her charges, finding that the trial court’s exclusion of a cabinet-maker’s testimony was error and that admission of DNA test results violated her rights under the confrontation clause (Ada Betty Cuadros-Fernandez v. State of Texas, No. 05-06-01464-CR, Texas App., 5th Dist.; 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6896).

D.C. Judge Failed To Consider Eyewitness I.D. Expert Before Exclusion

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A trial court applied incorrect legal principles and nearly adopted a per se rule of exclusion when it barred an eyewitness identification expert from testifying for the defense in a murder-kidnapping trial in which the sole evidence was witnesses’ identification, a District of Columbia Court of Appeals panel held Sept. 3 (Raymond L. Benn v. United States of America, No. 03-CF-946, D.C. App.; 2009 D.C. App. LEXIS 384).

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