October 2005
Using Daubert to Defeat Causation in the Delayed Diagnosis ClaimA Leap of Faith Will Not Establish Causation
By Victoria M. Davis and Brian R. Stimson
Part Two of a Two-Part Article. The McDowell case discussed in the first part of this article presented the question of "whether it is so if an expert says it is so." See Viterbo v. Dow Chem. Co., 826 F.2d 420, 421 (5th Cir. 1987). Daubert and its progeny answered in the negative and established that an expert may not present a bare causation conclusion to the jury when that expert has no scientific basis for that conclusion or for any of the predicate inferences leading up to it. The McDowell claim failed because a physician's personal clinical experience, sometimes called anecdotal experience, is simply not a proper scientific basis for causation opinion testimony.
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