Florida Supreme Court Rejects More Rigorous Expert Testimony Standard

Nathan Adams IV is a Partner in Holland & Knights Tallahassee office and Jerome W. Hoffman is a partner in both the Jacksonville and Tallahassee office

HIGHLIGHTS:

• The federal court system and 36 states have adopted the so-called Daubert standard in place of the Frye standard when it comes to qualifying expert witnesses under the rules of evidence. In 2013, the Florida Legislature amended the Florida Evidence Code to adopt the Daubert standard.
• The Florida Supreme Court, by a 4-2 vote on Feb. 16, 2017, declined to adopt as a rule the legislative changes "to the extent that they are procedural" due to "grave constitutional concerns" about the Daubert standard.
• The result is that we are likely to see more verdicts in Florida state courts based on non-verifiable and scientifically unreliable opinions than in most of the rest of the country.