{"id":1167,"date":"2012-12-31T09:50:05","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T16:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=1167"},"modified":"2012-12-31T09:53:45","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T16:53:45","slug":"california-takes-a-giant-step-towards-daubert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/california-takes-a-giant-step-towards-daubert\/","title":{"rendered":"California Takes a Giant Step Towards Daubert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Ambrogi – December 18, 2012<\/p>\n

There was a major ground shift in California recently \u2013 and we\u2019re talking not about an earthquake, but about the law governing the admission of expert testimony.<\/p>\n

In a unanimous opinion published Nov. 26, the California Supreme Court came within a hair\u2019s breadth of adopting the federal standard for admission of expert testimony as enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1993 opinion,\u00a0Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals<\/em>.<\/p>\n

California has long been among the minority of states that have adhered to the pre-Daubert \u201cgeneral acceptance\u201d test for the admissibility of expert testimony \u2013 a test first spelled out in the 1923 opinion of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals,\u00a0Frye v. United States<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The California Supreme Court unanimously adopted the\u00a0Frye<\/em>\u00a0test in its 1976 decision,\u00a0People v. Kelly<\/em>. In the years since, it has continued to apply the general acceptance test, requiring proof that a scientific technique has gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it is applied in order for it to be admissible.<\/p>\n

But in the Nov. 26 opinion,\u00a0Sargon Enterprises v. University of Southern California<\/a><\/em>, the court reversed the Court of Appeal and affirmed a trial judge who excluded an expert\u2019s opinion regarding lost profits as being overly speculative. In so ruling, the Supreme Court said that California judges are obligated to perform a gatekeeping function similar to that performed by federal judges under\u00a0Daubert<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe conclude that the trial court has the duty to act as a \u2018gatekeeper\u2019 to exclude speculative expert testimony,\u201d the court said. \u201cLost profits need not be proven with mathematical precision, but they must also not be unduly speculative. Here, the court acted within its discretion when it excluded opinion testimony that the company would have become extraordinarily successful had the university completed the clinical testing.\u201d<\/p>\n

California or Federal Law?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The court cited and quoted\u00a0Daubert<\/em>\u00a0several times in its opinion, but stopped short of adopting it. Instead, the court described the gatekeeping function as inherent in California law and California Evidence Code Sections 801 and 802.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder Evidence Code sections 801, subdivision (b), and 802, the trial court acts as a gatekeeper to exclude expert opinion testimony that is (1) based on matter of a type on which an expert may not reasonably rely, (2) based on reasons unsupported by the material on which the expert relies, or (3) speculative,\u201d the court explained. \u201cOther provisions of law, including decisional law, may also provide reasons for excluding expert opinion testimony.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in the very next paragraph, the court turned again to federal law, citing both\u00a0Daubert<\/em>\u00a0and the Federal Rules of Evidence for the proposition that judges must be cautious in excluding expert testimony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trial court\u2019s preliminary determination whether the expert opinion is founded on sound logic is not a decision on its persuasiveness,\u201d the court said. \u201cThe court must not weigh an opinion\u2019s probative value or substitute its own opinion for the expert\u2019s opinion. Rather, the court must simply determine whether the matter relied on can provide a reasonable basis for the opinion or whether that opinion is based on a leap of logic or conjecture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the California Supreme Court stopped short of adopting\u00a0Daubert<\/em>, lawyers are calling the opinion a major step in that direction.<\/p>\n

Ruling\u2019s Effect Will Be Dramatic<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe California Supreme Court in\u00a0Sargon<\/em>\u00a0aligned California\u2019s law of expert opinion admissibility with post-Daubert<\/em>\u00a0federal law, immediately catapulting California from among the most lax to one of the most muscular jurisdictions in this often-outcome-determinative area,\u201d wrote Kaye Scholer partner Robert Barnes\u00a0in an article<\/a>\u00a0originally published in\u00a0The Recorder<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile\u00a0Sargon<\/em>\u2019s specific holding provides a much-needed corrective to what a jury can hear by way of lost profits damages analysis, the ruling\u2019s effect on all California litigation will be dramatic and profound,\u201d Barnes wrote. \u201cThe impact of the Supreme Court\u2019s new expert admissibility regime should be particularly striking in tort cases turning on expert medical causation evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alston & Bird lawyers Rodrigo Salas and Jesus Torres, in a joint post at the\u00a0Product Liability Trends and Developments<\/a>\u00a0blog, agreed. \u201cThis clarification of existing case law \u2013 the interaction between Evidence Code Sections 801 and 802 \u2013 brings California one step closer to the federal\u00a0Daubert<\/em>\u00a0admissibility standard,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThis decision provides further ammunition for challenging expert testimony \u2013 not just on methodology, but also on the reasoning and foundation for the expert\u2019s opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another products liability lawyer, James Beck of Reed Smith, writing at his blog\u00a0Drug and Device Law<\/a>, described the opinion as one in which \u201cthe court spoke about California expert admissibility with a distinctDaubert<\/em>\u00a0accent.\u201d The opinion is noteworthy, he continued, for the court\u2019s repeated reliance on the federal precedent that we have (usually) come to know and love.\u201d<\/p>\n

One legal blogger wished the court had gone even farther. In a post at his blog\u00a0Daubert Uncensored<\/a>, Bowman and Brooke partner John D. Sear, suggested that, to the extent the opinion represents a further erosion of the general acceptance test in California, the court should outright embrace\u00a0Daubert<\/em>\u00a0once and for all.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime and time again, the California Supreme Court has emphasized that it is not adopting the\u00a0Daubert<\/em>\u00a0test, all the while quoting, citing, and relying upon\u00a0Daubert<\/em>\u00a0precedent in defining the contours of California\u2019s test,\u201d Sear said. \u201cIn my view, the court ought to simply scrap the general acceptance test outright and embrace theDaubert<\/em>\u00a0principles it has relied upon for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case is\u00a0Sargon Enterprises, Inc. v. University of Southern California<\/a><\/em>, __ Cal. 4th __, 2012 WL 5897314 (Nov. 26, 2012).<\/p>\n

Tell us what you think:<\/p>\n

Why does the California Supreme Court seem to stop short of expressly adopting\u00a0Daubert?<\/em><\/p>\n

What kinds of cases do you think the California Supreme Court\u2019s ruling will impact the most?<\/p>\n

California Takes a Giant Step Towards Daubert | BullsEye Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Ambrogi – December 18, 2012 There was a major ground shift in California recently \u2013 and we\u2019re talking not about an earthquake, but about the law governing the admission of expert testimony. In a unanimous opinion published Nov. 26, the California Supreme Court came within a hair\u2019s breadth of adopting the federal standard for… Continue reading California Takes a Giant Step Towards Daubert<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[172,7],"tags":[98,136],"class_list":["post-1167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-law-2","category-expert-witness","tag-daubert-challenge","tag-expert-witness-testimony","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia Takes a Giant Step Towards Daubert - Advise & Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/california-takes-a-giant-step-towards-daubert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California Takes a Giant Step Towards Daubert - Advise & Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Robert Ambrogi – December 18, 2012 There was a major ground shift in California recently \u2013 and we\u2019re talking not about an earthquake, but about the law governing the admission of expert testimony. 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