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Timestamp: 2014-11-23 08:24:15
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Expert Witnesses & Motions in Limine - Latin for Limited Motions
Expert Witnessess and Motions in Limine
Home Expert Witnessess and Motions in Limine
Brian D. Chase (BISNAR | CHASE Personal Injury Attorneys, LLP) and Scott D. Raphael (Litigitechnology, Inc.)
This article explores the appropriate role of the motion in limine as a tool of stability and predictability in ensuring the integrity of pretrial strategy vis-a-vis anticipated expert witness testimony, as well as some useful pointers on use of in limine motions prophylactically to curb potential evidentiary abuses at trial by the adversary, i.e., the very purpose for the in limine motion.
Overview of the Limine Motion
In Kelly v. New West Federal Savings (1996) 49 Cal.App.4th 659, the Second District Court of Appeal provided what is probably the first useful discussion in length concerning the genesis and purpose of a proper in limine motion.
Motions in limine are a commonly used tool of trial advocacy and management in both criminal and civil cases. Such motions are generally brought at the beginning of trial, although they may also be brought during trial when evidentiary issues are anticipated by the parties. In either event, they are argued by the parties, either orally or in writing or both, and ruled upon by the trial judge. The usual purpose of motions in limine is to preclude the presentation of evidence deemed inadmissible and prejudicial by the moving party. A typical order in limine excludes the challenged evidence and directs counsel, parties, and witnesses not to refer to the excluded matters during trial. (3 Witkin, Cal. Evidence, supra, §2011 at p. 1969.) “The advantage of such motions is to avoid the obviously futile attempt to ‘unring the bell’ in the event a motion to strike is granted in the proceedings before the jury.” (Hyatt v. Sierra Boat Co. (1978) 79 Cal.App.3d 325, 337, [145 Cal.Rptr. 47].) [¶] Motions in limine serve other purposes as well. They permit more careful consideration of evidentiary issues than would take place in the heat of battle during trial. They minimize side-bar conferences and disruptions during trial, allowing for an uninterrupted flow of evidence. Finally, by resolving potentially critical issues at the outset, they enhance the efficiency of trials and promote settlements. [Citation.]" (People v. Morris (1991) 53 Cal.3d 152, 188, 279 Cal.Rptr. 720, 807 P.2d 949, disapproved on an unrelated ground in People v. Stansbury (1995) 9 Cal.4th 824, 830, 38 Cal.Rptr.2d 394, 889 P.2d 588.) (Id., 49 Cal.App.4th at 669-670. )
Kelly is worthwhile reading, as the Court explains in useful detail the distinctions between proper and improper in limine motions in a modern litigation world where, as the Court observes, it is not uncommon for defense firms to file scores of motions in limine many of which comprise an inappropriate use of the device. (Kelly, supra, 49 Cal.App.4th at 669.)
Chiefly, motions seeking prophylactically to exclude obviously improper or irrelevant or highly prejudicial evidence remain the primary objective behind and utility of the motion. This includes defining the boundaries of permissible expert trial testimony in light of the proscriptions of C.C.P. § 2034(j), which mandates the exclusion of expert testimony after timely compliance with the exchange provisions of § 2034(f), for a variety of reasons. These include the unreasonable failure to: (1) List the witness as an expert under subdivision (f); (2) Submit an expert witness declaration; (3) Produce reports and writings of the expert witness under subdivision (g); and (4) make the expert available for deposition under subdivision (i).
In addition to the foregoing, recent appellate decisional authority has also now clarified and authorized the exclusion of certain expert testimony at trial: (1) which exceeds the scope of the descriptive designation in the expert declaration of the anticipated areas of the experts’ trial testimony (Bonds v. Roy (1999) 20 Cal.4th 140), and (2) which exceeds the scope of the expert’s representations at deposition as to the anticipated areas of the experts’ trial testimony (Jones v. Moore (2000) 80 Cal.App.4th 557). Also properly excluded by the in limine motion are illegal attempted substitutions of experts via the “supplemental” designation procedure of C.C.P. § 2034(h). (See, Basham v. Babcock (1996) 44 Cal.App.4th 1717)
Another area of expert witness disclosures and scope of trial testimony fraught with uncertainty and peril revolved around the handling of the “non-retained” expert. From Hurtado v. Western Medical Center (1990) 222 Cal.App.3d 1198, 272 Cal.Rptr. 324 and Huntley v. Foster (1995) 35 Cal.App.4th 753, 41 Cal.Rptr.2d 358, the Courts of Appeal seemed to make it clear that a treating physician as a percipient expert was not a “retained” expert as to whom an expert witness declaration under § 2034(f)(2) was required. Then, in Plunkett v. Spaulding (1994) 52 Cal.App.4th 115, 60 Cal.Rptr.2d 377, the Third District Court of Appeal held that this was fine unless the treater had also formed an opinion on the standard of care employed by a prior treating physician, in which case the treater now had to be “retained” in order to express such opinions, regardless of whether those opinions were percipient ones formed during the course and scope of the patient’s treatment. Plunklett created substantial confusion and lack of future guidance because it looked to the qualitative nature of the opinions themselves on a case-by-case basis as determinative, rather than focus on the time and place when the opinions had been formed (i.e., genuinely “percipient” expert opinion formation), as the statute seemed to indicate.
Fortunately, it its recent decision in Schreiber v. Estate of Kiser (2000) 22 Cal.4th 31, 91 Cal.Rptr.2d 293, the Supreme Court finally cleared up years of judicial confusion over the critical distinction between “retained” and “non-retained” experts, holding that a non-retained, percipient expert could express any opinions formed during the course of his or her treatment, including standard of care opinions. The Court’s opinion appears to embrace within the “non–retained” classification, any expert whose opinion is formed ordinarily during the transactional course of his or her ordinary work, such as coroners, fire investigators, investigating police officers and public accident investigators. That decision facilitates additional motions in limine which should not be overlooked, and which are discussed below.
Based on the current state of the law, the following are a checklist of motions in limine which should be considered as part of every practitioner’s pretrial strategy. Keep in mind that all in limine motions directed at expert testimony vulnerable under C.C.P. § 2034(j) depend upon the assumption that there has been a prior timely expert witness exchange between the parties.
Motion to Exclude Undesignated (Including) Nonretained Experts, and Insufficiently Identified Nonretained Experts
The most obvious of the expert witness motions in limine is to exclude expert witnesses who have never been designated. Failure to designate a witness as an expert in the designation required by C.C.P. § 2034, who will offer expert testimony at trial, requires exclusion of that witness properly facilitated through an in limine motion. C.C.P. § 2034(j)(1). See, Province v. Center for Women's Health & Family Birth (1993) 20 Cal.App.4th 1673, 1681-1684, 25 Cal.Rptr.2d 667 [non-retained, percipient witness not listed as an expert improperly permitted to testify as to expert medical opinion], disapproved on other grounds in Heller v. Norcal Mutual Ins. Co. (1994) 8 Cal.4th 30, 41 32 Cal.Rptr.2d 200, Richaud v. Jennings (1993) 16 Cal.App.4th 81, 90-91, 19 Cal.Rptr.2d 790 [party desiring to call an expert not designated when expert witness information was exchanged must move to augment its expert witness list under subdivision (k) ]; Zellerino v. Brown (1991) 235 Cal.App.3d 1097, 1117-1118, 1 Cal.Rptr.2d 222 [plaintiff's conduct "prejudiced the defense, which did not have the ability to counter the testimony of the belatedly disclosed experts"].) The only exception to this rule is rebuttal expert testimony, discussed below, which is rarely permitted as a practical matter and is very narrowly construed.
This includes both “retained” experts, and “non-retained” experts such as treating physicians, police officers, coroners, etc. It is expressly statutorily authorized by C.C.P. § 2034(j)(1), and by the Second District Court of Appeal’s February 7, 2002 decision in Kalaba v. Gray ___ Cal.App.4th ___, 2002 D.J.D.A.R. 1577. As Kalaba noted, “...treating physicians are not ‘retained experts’ within the meaning of section 2034, and no expert declaration is required when a party intends to call a treating physician for the purpose of eliciting expert testimony; it is sufficient if a treating physician is identified by name and address in the proponent’s designation of expert witnesses. Where, as here, the treating physicians are not listed or identified by name but simply referred to in the designation as ‘all past or present examining and/or treating physicians,’ there has been no compliance with the letter or the spirit of section 2034, and the trial court acts within its discretion when it excludes expert testimony by non-designated doctors.” Id., ___ Cal.App.4th at ___, 2002 D.J.D.A.R. at 1579. Kalaba further makes clear that an insufficient designation of a non-retained expert (failure to provide both name and address of the non-retained expert) are equally grounds for exclusion of a non-retained expert under C.C.P. § 2034(j)(1).
Schreiber and Kalaba would not appear limited in scope of application solely to non-retained experts who are treating physicians. In the advent of Schreiber, it is settled that non-retained “percipient” experts are experts who are required to be designated under C.C.P. § 2034(f)(1)(A) because their opinion testimony is “related to a subject that is sufficiently beyond common experience that the opinion of an expert would assist the trier of fact...” as defined under Evid.C. § 801. (Schrieber, supra, 22 Cal.4th at 34.) Schreiber held that an expert declaration is not required for such “percipient” experts, such as treating physicians, “and [s]he may testify as to any opinions formed on the basis of facts independently acquired and informed by his [or her] training, skill and experience...includ[ing] opinions regarding causation and standard of care because such issues are inherently in a physician’s work.” (Schreiber, supra, 22 Cal.4th at 39.) Similarly, “non-retained” or so-called “