North Dakota

The attorney monitoring North Dakota state law decisions for this site is Leonard Bucklin, a litigator who also testifies as an expert witness on legal malpractice issues. He is the author of numerous articles on expert testimony and other subjects. For general background on North Dakota's law of expert evidence, readers should consult the overview posted at Bucklin's own site, as well as the discussion at Harvard's Judicial Gatekeeping Project.

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North Dakota Supreme Court

Forster v. West Dakota Veterinary Clinic, Inc., 2004 ND 207 (N.D. Nov. 4, 2004). Vet clinic's proprietor informs various persons that she suspects disgruntled former employee of burglarizing clinic, stealing medications, and poisoning proprietor's horse. In trial of former employee's defamation action against vet clinic and its proprietor, former employee offers testimony from certified public accountant to establish past and future economic loss. Jury awards damages to plaintiff, and vet clinic appeals. Admissibility affirmed. Trial court did not err in admitting testimony and expert's curriculum vitae. Clinic complains that expert had no background as vocational expert or in veterinary business and was therefore unqualified to render opinion. But in his 30 years of performing financial analyses and calculations, expert had acquired some degree of expertise to support his damage computations, and clinic explored limitations of his experience on cross-examination.

North Dakota