Thursday, September 08, 2005

Federal Circuit Clarifies Causation Standard in Vaccine Act Cases

An alert reader has drawn our attention to Althen v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., No. 04-5146 (Fed. Cir. July 29, 2005) (Mayer, Clevenger, & Schall, JJ.), which the reader describes as having "caused a bit of an earthquake" in Vaccine Act circles. It rejects a causation standard under which Vaccine Act claimants would be required to point to peer-reviewed medical literature linking the vaccine with the health outcome.

posted by pn at 10:05 PM  

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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.