Committee Sponsors Mock Daubert Hearing Program at Section Fall Meeting

Betsy Brand Six
Vice-Chair, Membership

In conjunction with the Toxic Torts and Environmental Litigation Committee, the Environmental Crimes and Enforcement Committee sponsored a program at the 10th Section Fall Meeting in Portland, Oregon on Oct. 9-13, 2002. The program was one of the breakout sessions on Thursday afternoon and is entitled "Daubert in Action - Gatekeepers for the Qualified, the Relevant, and the Reliable." The program took the form of a mock Daubert hearing related to dispositive and limine motions seeking to exclude expert testimony in an environmental and toxic tort case.

The Hon. Robert E. Jones, U.S. District Judge for the District of Oregon, presided over the mock hearing. Lee Hamel of Hamel, Bowers & Clark LLP in Houston and John Leonard Watson of Moye Giles O'Keefe Vermeire & Gorrell, LLP in Denver acted as counsel for the parties attempting to offer and exclude the testimony. Mark Thornhill of Spencer Fane Britt & Browne LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, and Pete Anderson of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick LLP, Charlotte, North Carolina, portrayed the putative experts.

The experts were examined concerning environmental and health issues and the three legs of the Daubert table: expert qualifications, relevance of the experts' testimony to the case at hand, and the reliability of the scientific method used by the experts. Judge Jones interacted with counsel and the experts before ruling on the motions and was available for discussions with attendees.