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2017 Clm & Business Insurance Construction Conference – Challenging Experts In Building Product Cases: Clearing The Smoke And Smashing The Mirrors

October 10, 2017

Michael Montgomery from Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig along with co-presenters Valerie Garcia, Aaron Lorentz, Theresa Touchton and Lee Wright presented in San Diego, CA at the 2017 CLM & Business Insurance Construction Conference on the topic of “Challenging Experts in Building Product Cases: Clearing the Smoke and Smashing the Mirrors”.

Cases that involve building products and materials typically see a host of experts offering opinions on everything from product design to performance. Often, the opinions and testing methods used by these experts are simply accepted by the parties to the litigation. However, increasingly, manufacturers and suppliers are using the standards for admissibility set forth in Daubert and its state-based progeny to successfully challenge experts on several fronts. More and more, courts are finding that the methods used by experts in these cases amount to little more than junk science that fails to withstand the stringent test for admissibility. This session will review some of these recent court decisions and provide strategies and tips for challenging the methods, theories, and opinions of the product failure expert.