ABSTRACT
In most toxic tort litigation, witness testimony, as to degree of risk and proximate cause, is crucial both to claimant's proof and to defendant's efforts to avoid liability. This testimony often takes the form of an opinion, and generally, only "expert" witnesses are permitted to give testimony in opinion form. Admissible evidence of proximate cause may come from testimony of an examining physician or from experts relying on medical evidence generated by others. The trial court's assessment of the admissibility of expert testimony requires the application of Federal Rules of Evidence 702 and 703 or their state law counterparts. The trial court may remove an expert's testimony from jury consideration where it finds the basis for the opinion inadequate as a matter of law. Such decisions have, for example, been upheld where a plaintiff's medical expert in an asbestos case had no knowledge of the degree of decedent's exposure.
