A high stakes way of handling Daubert motions
How do most judges handle Daubert motions? Do they hold pre-trial hearings or just rule based on briefs?
One Federal Judge has an interesting approach to handling Daubert motions. He decides all motions right at the time the expert is to testify live at trial. When the challenged expert comes up, the Judge sends the jury out of the room and then allows the challenging side to cross examine the challenged expert witness.
The stakes are high because if the Judge allows the expert to testify then the time that the challenging party spent crossing the challenged expert witness is deducted from the challenger's allotted time. If the challenging party wins, then the time spent crossing the challenged expert is deducted from the challenged expert's side (the challengee?).
Needless to say, attorneys think long and hard in this judge's court before bringing a Daubert motion.
One Federal Judge has an interesting approach to handling Daubert motions. He decides all motions right at the time the expert is to testify live at trial. When the challenged expert comes up, the Judge sends the jury out of the room and then allows the challenging side to cross examine the challenged expert witness.
The stakes are high because if the Judge allows the expert to testify then the time that the challenging party spent crossing the challenged expert witness is deducted from the challenger's allotted time. If the challenging party wins, then the time spent crossing the challenged expert is deducted from the challenged expert's side (the challengee?).
Needless to say, attorneys think long and hard in this judge's court before bringing a Daubert motion.
Labels: admissibility, Daubert
posted by The Experts @ 5:10 PM
1 Comments:
At 11:30 AM,
Rick Bosworth said…
Outstanding. This is a case study in organizational behavior: how the policy (of the Court) impacts the behavior of the actors (the attorneys). This policy should counteract the misuse of Daubert challenges by giving the challenging attorney some skin in the game. I am all for challenges where appropriate, but by raising the cost a bit, an attorney will think twice. Hopefully, the frequency of unwarranted challenges will wane. Perhaps more judges should look to this court's example.
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