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Excluding Unreliable Expert Testimony in Fire Cases
Part One of a Two-Part Series
Fire cases, especially those involving appliances, present unique challenges because the lack of compelling physical evidence often permits ex-perts to give unreliable opinions concerning causation. Fire usually destroys evidence showing its cause, and many fire scenes contain multiple possible causes in the area of origin. Moreover, the area of origin can only be defined in the most general sense in most significant cases because there are no fire patterns indicating a specific point of origin. Many times, the likely area of origin is no smaller than a large portion of a particular room. Moreover, property owners are reluctant to reveal that they negligently started a fire, so they provide misleading information in some cases. In many fires, certain or even likely identification of any particular cause is simply not possible.
Experts attempt to fill this uncertain void by identifying causes without reasonable support. Many times they identify a cause that cannot be scientifically shown to have started a fire ' or is not even a factually plausible cause. Both public and private experts provide unsupportable opinions concerning cause. Numerous cases have been won where completely neutral public-sector investigators and paid experts have concluded the defendants' products caused fires. These victories illustrate the lack of support underlying many experts' opinions.
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