A “Daubert” motion is a type of pre-trial motion in a lawsuit, which asks the trial court to preclude or limit an expert’s opinion testimony to the jury. Daubert motions are named for the Supreme Court case, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993).

Daubert clarified the factors courts should consider when assessing its admissibility:

• Whether the expert is qualified
• Whether the expert follows a reliable methodology (process) to reach any opinion(s)
• Whether the opinion(s) are helpful to a jury

(Daubert, 509 U.S. at 593-94) The Daubert factors for the admissibility of opinion testimony by experts have recently been adopted for use in Florida state courts.  Florida Rule of Evidence 90.702.

The opinion testimony of an expert may be indispensable to the case of the party offering the expert.  Thus, a judge’s exclusion or limitation of the proposed expert opinion testimony may be fatal to the case of the party offering that expert.  For that reason, Daubert motions are now filed against many proposed experts in lawsuits involving injury or death cases.

For many years, Mr. Eriksen been admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and all federal trial courts in Florida.  Unlike most plaintiffs injury lawyers in Florida, he has handled and tried many lawsuits in federal court over the years; and therefore has decades of experience handling Daubert motions.

Mr. Eriksen has frequently been asked to lecture to other lawyers on the topic of Daubert: