Indiana Law Update Blog - Price Waicukauski & Riley Legal Blog

Expert in Federal Court Must Provide More Than Just Conclusions

April 19, 2011

Today, the Seventh Circuit held that a district court properly granted summary judgment to a defendant because a plaintiff's expert asserted causation without explaining his rationale in Bourke v. Conger, ___ F.3d ___ (7th Cir. 2011), Cause No. 09-3859. This is a mistake which you shouldn't make, especially under the new FRCP 26.

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In this case, a man was convicted of murder and sued his defense counsel for malpractice. The defendants moved for summary judgment and the plaintiff submitted an expert report that described why the defendants did not meet the applicable standard of care and asserted that this caused the jury to find the plaintiff guilty. The district court granted the motion for summary judgment.

On appeal, the Court affirmed the district court's judgment because the expert's report did not sufficiently describe why the expert believed that the defendant's conduct caused the jury to find the plaintiff guilty.

Bourke depended exclusively on Thomas's expert report to establish the causation element of his claim. While expert testimony is one of the types of evidence that a plaintiff like Bourke could normally rely on to ward off summary judgment, it is well established that an expert report that lacks foundation and depth will be given little consideration by courts. In order for "an expert report to create a genuine issue of fact, it must provide not merely ... conclusions, but the basis for the conclusions." As the district court noted, the Thomas report does not support its conclusion that the Appellees' performance during voir dire caused the jury to find Bourke guilty with analysis, facts or reasoning. While the report
discusses various ways in which the Appellees could have better represented Bourke's interests ..., this discussion only goes towards establishing that the Appellees breached their duty to Bourke, not causation. The Thomas report fails to identify facts that support its conclusion that the Appellees' alleged errors had any role in causing the jury to find Bourke guilty. This shortcoming prevents the Thomas report from creating a genuine, disputed issue of fact concerning causation. Because of this flaw and the fact that Bourke did not present the court with any other evidence relevant to this element of his prima facie case, it was appropriate for the district court to grant summary judgment against Bourke's claim.

Under the recent amendment to FRCP 26(b)(4)(B), drafts of experts reports are non-discoverable work product. Therefore, if you are representing a client in federal court, make sure to work with your expert to ensure that he fully describes the rationale behind each of his expert conclusions in his report. There's no excuse for having an expert report that offers an insufficient basis for the expert's conclusions.

Lessons:

Make sure your experts fully describe the rationale for their conclusions in their expert reports.

Brad A. Catlin
Price Waicukauski & Riley, LLC
Learn more about Brad and contact us
Download a copy of this article here

TAG 7th Circuit, Expert Report, Expert Witness

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