Expert witness testimony.

• Author: Waugh, Christian W.
• Position: Letters - Letter to the editor

This letter responds to "Adoption of Daubert in the Amendment to F.S. [section]90.702 Tightens the Rules for Admissibility of Expert Witness Testimony" (Sept/Oct). In fact, whether in theory or in practice, the rules have not been tightened for expert witness testimony admissibility.

In theory, Daubert is not necessarily more or less restrictive than Florida's version of Frye, which includes a "pure opinion exception" for expert testimony given novel or new areas of expertise and science. True, Daubert enumerates different factors. But the authors cannot point to anything Daubert mandates considered that judges did not in fact consider in the Frye era. The authors do point to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kumho Tire Co., Ltd. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137 (1999), which is good, because the Court goes out of its way in that opinion to discuss the "liberal" and "flexible" admission standard for expert testimony. How this makes Daubert more restrictive than Frye is, again, a matter of mere assertion.

The authors go as far as to say the Florida Supreme Court is clearly wrong that the Frye standard is a higher threshold to surmount than Daubert. Yet, the article does not present any evidence, study, or case that explains why the authors' statement is true and the Florida Supreme Court is wrong. That's because the evidence for the authors'...