Third DCA: Applying Daubert Under Florida Law In Perez v. Bell South Telecommunications, Inc.

The Third District Court of Appeal of Florida recently issued an opinion in Perez v. Bell So. Telecomm., No. 3D11-445, 2014 WL 1613654 (Fla. 3d DCA Apr. 23, 2014),which represents the Third District's first pronouncement applying Daubert under Florida law since the legislative amendment took effect on July 1, 2013, repudiating the archaic Frye standard and pure opinion testimony in favor of the more widely accepted Daubert standard.

The case involved a negligence suit brought by Osmany Anthony Perez, a minor, by and through his mother, Maria Franco Perez, against the mother's employer, Bell South Telecommunications, for the premature birth of the minor as a result of placental abruption, which the Plaintiff's expert opined was induced or caused by "work place stress." Id.at *4.