Make Sure to Timely Raise Your Daubert Objection to Expert Testimony

 

If you are going to raise a Daubert objection or challenge (or request a Daubert hearing), you need to TIMELY do so before the expert witness testifies. A Daubert motion / challenge / hearing relates to the admissibility of an expert witness’ testimony. As you can imagine, this is an extremely important issue as many cases depend on expert witness testimony to support their burden of proof.

In Rojas v. Rodriguez, 41 Fla.L.Weekly D423a (Fla. 3d DCA 2016), a defendant raised a Daubert objection post-verdict. The defendant was challenging the admissibility of the testimony of plaintiff’s neurosurgeon expert in requesting a new trial. The trial court granted the defendant’s motion. On appeal, the appellate court reversed ordering the reinstitution of the jury’s verdict because the defendant did NOT timely raise its Daubert objection:

Moreover, it was incumbent upon the defendant, as the challenging party, to timely raise a Daubert objection and request a hearing before the trial court. Given the trial court’s role as “gatekeeper” in the Daubert context, it stands to reason that such an objection must be timely raised to allow the trial court to properly perform its role:…

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Here, there was no timely Daubert objection, nor is there any indication that exceptional circumstances existed to merit consideration of the defendant’s untimely objection. As such, the trial court erred in granting the defendant’s motion. Accordingly, we reverse the order on appeal and remand so that the trial court may reinstitute the jury’s verdict. Because the defendant failed to make a timely Daubert objection, we do not reach the issue of whether the neurosurgeon’s testimony would have been admissible under Daubert.

Please contact David Adelstein at [email protected] or (954) 361-4720 if you have questions or would like more information regarding this article. You can follow David Adelstein on Twitter @DavidAdelstein1.