An appeal before the New Jersey Supreme Court over expert testimony in suits concerning the acne drug Accutane is seen by many as a chance to revise the state’s standard for admitting such evidence.
“The position we are taking on behalf of those amici is that the time has come for New Jersey to join the majority of other states and the federal court system and adopt the Daubert standard for admission of expert testimony. It’s been our position that the rules for expert admission as applied in New Jersey state court are weaker than they are in the federal court system and the other states. That creates a problem where cases that couldn’t survive in the federal courts and in the other jurisdictions are filed here in New Jersey in hopes of getting a jury trial on expert testimony that just isn’t reliable,” said Edward Fanning of McCarter & English in Newark, who submitted an amicus brief for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and three other business groups.