Court limits economic expert's testimony on worklife expectancy

In Arreola vs. Epic Divers, Inc., Louisiana, Eastern District, Judge Jay C. Zainey granted the courts motion in limine to exclude part of a defense expert's economic damage report on lost earnings in workers compensation case.

Plaintiff's complaint concerning the defense expert's report was limited solely to his assertion that plaintiff's worklife expectancy (the potential loss period) as a commercial diver was properly fixed at 5 years from the date of his accident. The defense expert had derived the 5 year estimate from a case study compiled by Louisiana State University's Department of Quantitative Business Analysis. Plaintiff argued that the LSU study did not satisfy the requirements of Daubert because no other court had ever ruled upon its admissibility, and because it had never been published or subject to peer review.

The court held that the expert would not be allowed to testify regarding any type of reduced worklife expectancy for divers because that was not his area of expertise. In addition any testimony regarding the LSU study was specifically excluded because the Court was not convinced that it was reliable.

For more details and discussion on the case see dauberttracker.com

Daubert can be a plaintiff's best friend

Daubert motions to disqualify scientific expert witnesses have become a staple in many defense attorneys' war chests, but Brian Beckcom, a Texas attorney who specializes in plaintiff maritime personal injury cases, believes that Daubert is "a gun that kicks as hard as it shoots."

See: http://www.verdictsearch.com/jv3_verdictsearch/tactics/021307/ for the full story.

When attorneys become expert witnesses

Attorneys in the Wal-Mart break-time class action appeared in a Philadelphia Common Pleas courtroom Tuesday to debate the plaintiffs' request for counsel fees totaling more than $46 million. Among the fees-related expert witnesses called to the stand by the retail giant during the hearing was Ralph Wellington, chairman of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis. Wellington who oversees his firm's billing structure, was Wal-Mart's expert on the reasonableness of class counsel's rates.

Read the entire article here: http://www.law.com/jsp/law/LawArticleFriendly.jsp?id=1172656993341