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Mike Leard Comments on Recent Changes to the Federal Rules of Evidence in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly
Print PDFMike Leard, a partner in Nutter’s Litigation Department and member of the Products Liability practice group, discussed how recent amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 702 reinforce the role of the judge as “gatekeeper” to determine whether expert evidence is sufficiently reliable to be admitted at trial in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. In the article, “Revised rule underscores judges’ vetting of experts,” Mike said, “[The advisory committee] made pretty significant statements by saying essentially that the rule was not being applied as it was intended. Instead of the judge functioning as a gatekeeper, judges were allowing the expert testimony to proceed to the jury to draw their own conclusions. There’s a big risk to allowing unreliable, untested, [and] unsupported theories that masquerade as science to go before a jury.”