ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the law of expert testimony as it has developed in the United States during the last 40 years. The expert witness is a far more prominent figure in United States litigation than is the case in other nations. In the federal courts of the United States, rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Procedure provides for elaborate and expensive pre-trial discovery of a testifying expert. The test for determining what subject matter is appropriate for expert testimony has been liberalised. A unanimous Supreme Court reversed, holding that the uncompromising standard of “general acceptance” as the sole criteria for admitting expert testimony had been superseded by enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence. The Daubert decision, although concerned with expertise of a scientific nature, has had a major restraining effect on all forms of expert testimony.
