Friday, August 08, 2003

Challenges to Financial Experts Increasing, Says Deloitte & Touche

A study by Deloitte & Touche reportedly shows that challenges to expert financial testimony have risen by 260% over the past four years, with about half the challenges succeeding.

By happenstance, no doubt, Deloitte's announcement of these findings coincides with its marketing launch of a "unique database to track all challenges to the testimony of financial expert witnesses." According to Deloitte, its database will help litigators "study the reasons why financial expert testimony has either passed or failed the admissibility standards set forth in Daubert, Kumho Tire, and Rule 702."

So whatever its other merits and demerits, Daubert continues to feed the consultant economy.

posted by pn at 7:11 PM  

Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.