Florida Supreme Court Approves Daubert Standard for Expert Testimony

Litigation Attorney William Shepherd participated in a radio interview with WFSU on Florida's Supreme Court decision to adopt the Daubert standard for expert witness testimonies. For years Florida’s highest court had used the Fyre standard, which is a lower standard than Daubert. Mr. Shepherd, who was a former statewide prosecutor of Florida, had pushed to get the Daubert standard approved.

“I didn’t want to have to explain to a grieving mother why her daughter’s killer had been walked out the back of the courtroom door on some crazy junk science defense,” said Mr. Shepherd.

Mr. Shepherd had referred to the Frye standard as “junk science.” He explains, “Florida trailed behind the bulk of the state courts around the country and also the federal court system. The federal court adopted this (Daubert) more than 20 years ago. The idea is that – unlike the state of Florida Frye system which allowed an expert’s pure opinion to come in - the testimony has to be based on reliable science that can be tested and repeated.”

“It will help defendants who are accused of crimes so that we will not have “the dog whisperer” who testified that his dog caught only guilty defendants…or the other side of that – the smellologist in Orlando who said his nose was specially trained and he could tell how long a dead body had been removed from a car trunk,” says Mr. Shepherd on how the Daubert standard will impact the legal aspect.

READ: Florida Supreme Court Approves Daubert Standard for Expert Testimony