Expert report proves best defense against Daubert offense

 

In litigation, attacks on expert opinions are par for the course, but a sound expert report can ward off a Daubert challenge and clear the way to admission at trial, as a recent fraud case illustrates.

  

The plaintiff retained an expert to prove its allegations that the defendants had committed intentional and constructive fraud. The expert encountered problems from the start, receiving few and incomplete documents from the opposing party. Next, her effort to reconstruct the company’s financial situation gave rise to a Daubert motion in which the defendants claimed her value conclusions were not the result of a reliable methodology. They took particular issue with her normalization adjustments.

 

The court denied the motion. The expert’s comprehensive report, including attachments to authoritative sources, proved she followed the standards of the profession in re-creating the missing financial information, the court said. 

  

Read more here.