Abuse of Discretion
Definition
The standard of appellate review established by Joiner for Daubert rulings. An appellate court will reverse a trial judge's gatekeeping decision only if the decision was clearly unreasonable, establishing wide judicial latitude in admissibility determinations.
- Established in
- General Electric Co. v. Joiner
- Applies to
- Appellate review of Daubert admissibility rulings
- Effect
- Wide latitude given to the trial judge
- Reversal threshold
- Ruling must be clearly unreasonable
Common questions
Why does this standard favor the trial judge's decision?+
It recognizes the trial judge is closest to the evidence and testimony, so an appellate court defers unless the ruling falls entirely outside any reasonable range of decisions.
Does this standard govern how the trial judge first decides admissibility?+
No, it governs only how a higher court reviews that decision afterward on appeal, not the reasoning process the trial judge follows when first ruling on admissibility.
What does this mean practically for expert witness strategy?+
Because a reversal on appeal is hard to win under this standard, most of the real contest over expert admissibility happens at the trial court's initial gatekeeping hearing.
Related terms
- Daubert Gatekeeping
- The judicial function under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993) and Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 702, requiring the trial judge to...
- Daubert Trilogy
- The three US Supreme Court decisions that together define the federal standard for expert testimony admissibility: Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993),...
- Error Rate
- One of the Daubert factors: the known or potential rate at which a method produces false positives or false negatives, and whether...
- Federal Rule of Evidence 702
- The US federal rule governing expert testimony. As amended through 2023, it requires that expert opinion be based on sufficient facts or...
- Frye Standard
- The US legal test for admissibility of scientific evidence, originating from Frye v. United States (1923), which required that a technique be...