Expert Opinions and Inadmissible Information

Articles are one of the most powerful tools for gaining reader trust and driving traffic to your business. They allow you to expand upon your expertise and present a clearer picture of your industry or niche to entice readers into interacting with your content. Whether you are a pest control company or hotel chain, you can use articles to entice your audience on a deeper level, and ultimately convert them into customers.

An expert opinion is a specialized conclusion or inference drawn by an individual who has knowledge, training, and experience in a particular field. Experts are frequently called to testify during legal cases, helping fact-finders understand complex issues and make informed decisions. Experts are generally required to state their opinions in a legally sufficient manner and be based on reliable facts, data, and methodology. Experts are also expected to be willing to answer questions about the evidence on which their conclusions and inferences are based, but may face limitations in what information they can discuss during testimony.

Courts have reached divergent results on how to treat inadmissible information that is used as a basis for an expert opinion or inference, particularly with regard to the question of whether such information can be considered by the jury without a limiting instruction. For example, some courts have held that such information cannot be admitted when the expert is expressing an opinion of probability, but other courts have found that such inadmissible information may be considered by the jury if it is necessary to the expert’s formulation of his or her opinion.