Section 16.10 Basis for Opinion

• Library: Civil Trial Practice 2015 Supp

V. (§16.10) Basis for Opinion

Section 490.065.3, RSMo 2000, liberalized the rules governing the admissibility of expert opinions. Glidewell v. S.C. Mgmt., Inc., 923 S.W.2d 940, 949–50 (Mo. App. S.D. 1996). Specifically, § 490.065.3 provides the foundation for admitting expert testimony:

The facts or data in a particular case upon which an expert bases an opinion or inference may be those perceived by or made known to him at or before the hearing and must be of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the field in forming opinions or inferences upon the subject and must be otherwise reasonably reliable.

But even before the enactment of §490.065.3, Missouri courts had determined that “[a]n expert witness may base an opinion ‘upon...