Voire Dire of Experts

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we've reached the main module of this entire course. Everything is built up to this module on expert testimony.

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As you can see, we're almost at the end of the course. You're doing really great. You're almost there

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in this module. We're going to discuss what happens during voir dire of experts.

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The difference between a consulting and testifying expert.

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What happens during direct examination, how to prepare for cross examination and finally

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finishing up testimony with the redirect examination. We'll talk about each of these parts

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in a little bit more depth as we go through this module,

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less than 9.1 is on voir dire of experts.

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Voir dire is the

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French term for to speak the truth.

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It's really interesting that it's

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voir dire, and the whole qualification of experts

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means to speak the truth. If you remember very early on our very first module, we talked about the role of an expert being to seek the truth,

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and it's kind of brings everything full circle that

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the process of qualifying an expert for testimony

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means to speak the truth.

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So an expert starts off by seeking the truth and then must speak the truth

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and there to standards that are out there that govern

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kind of expert testimony and what qualifies his expert testimony and those air known as the doll Bert

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and the Fry Standards, and we'll talk about those in depth.

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But during voir dire, what really happens is it's a review of the curriculum vitae, the C V

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and the credentials of the expert to determine whether this person has followed

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a defined scientific process.

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The Daubert standard comes from a 1993 case known as Delbert versus Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Incorporated,

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and it establishes a number of things. First, the judges the gatekeeper.

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It

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sets the rules and says that assuring that scientific expert testimony truly proceeds from scientific knowledge rests on the trial judge.

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The judge is the one who decides whether or not

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an expert is testifying to scientific

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expert t's, or whether or not

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the

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data and information that the expert is going to provide is admissible

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in court. So there comes the admissibility argument that we've talked about before.

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It also establishes that the trial judge has to ensure that the expert testimony is quote relevant to the task at hand

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and that it rests on a reliable foundation.

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So here's where relevance or admissibility comes into play and reliability comes into play.

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Albert also establishes that a conclusion will qualify as scientific knowledge if

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the person making that

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conclusion condemn unstated that it is a product of sound scientific methodology derived from the scientific method.

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Is it defensible?

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Is it repeatable and are the results reliable?

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Dow Daubert also

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establishes

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a set of factors that a judge can use their known as illustrative factors there, not a test. It's not a hard and fast

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you must meet all of these in order to

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be considered scientific

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and therefore admissible is expert testimony.

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Daubert lays out a couple of ideas of things that the judge needs to consider.

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The judge needs to consider whether the theory or technique employed by the expert is generally accepted in the scientific community, whether it's been subjected to peer review,

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whether it can be or has been tested,

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whether there's a known error rate

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and whether the research conducted was conducted independent

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of a particular litigation or whether the

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research was done dependent on an intention to provide the proposed testimony.

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So the question is,

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did you do this expecting to testify. Or did you do this

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because have you done this? And has this

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methodology been created outside of a particular litigation?

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Really? Has it been? Hasn't been tested hasn't been reviewed? Is it generally accepted in the scientific community?

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Fry, on the other hand, is a 1923 case that states that scientific evidence presented to the court must be interpreted by the court as generally accepted by a meaningful second segment

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of the associated scientific community. It distills Daubert down to really one thing.

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It makes

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the

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Daubert standard

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really once very simple, simplified standard,

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for I came first. Yes,

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Daubert came later.

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But

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Fry iss still applicable. And it's important to know the difference between Daubert and Frye because if you're in California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania or Washington

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and you're testifying in state court,

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you're actually testifying under the Frye standard, not the Daubert standard.

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So it's very important to know that,

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however,

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when in doubt, Daubert supersedes

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fried daubert is the better standard than fry. It's the Mork current standard, and it's the more generally accepted standard

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again.

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If you're in one of these states listed on the screen

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you do need to be aware of Fry

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because you are living in a fries standard state.

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So here's a quiz question.

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Which case supersedes the other.

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Fry supersedes Daubert,

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Daubert and Fryer equal or Daubert supersedes fry.

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The answer is, Daubert supersedes fried Albert is the higher standard if there's a conflict between the two standards