Opinion ID: 1912190
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Burden of Proof Rests on the Party Proffering the Expert

Text: The motion judge compounded the error of admitting Grenier's experts by placing a burden on Ford to disprove Grenier's experts' opinions' admissibility. The party proffering an expert bears the burden of establishing that the expert's opinions are admissible by a preponderance of the evidence. [34] As stated, part of proffering an expert is establishing that the expert can support his conclusion with reliable, verifiable science. [35] The motion judge erred by putting the onus on Ford to counter Grenier's experts at the Daubert hearing rather than assume that Grenier's experts could only offer an expert opinion after establishing at the Daubert hearing that their conclusions were based on sound, reliable, verifiable scientific bases. In effect, the ruling emasculated the concept of a gate keeper's role. Because I disagree that Grenier's expert's testimony satisfied Daubert, I conclude that the motion judge abused his discretion when he allowed Drs. Dodson and Lemen to offer opinion testimony. Dr. Lemen was Grenier's sole causation expert. Admitting his unreliable opinion testimony constituted reversible error.