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Civil appellate, criminal appellate, and criminal trial lawyer at 704 North Thompson Street, #157, Conroe, Texas 77301-2578, (936) 494-1393.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Fort Worth Holds Identification of Expert and Expertise Area Sufficient to Allow Testimony

A panel of Texas's Second Court of Appeals sitting in Fort Worth held through an opinion of Justice Lee Gabriel, joined by Justice Sue Walker and concurred in by Justice Lee Ann Dauphinot that identifications of  a peace officer as an expert and an affidavit by a witness of that expert witness's expertise was a sufficient disclosure of that expert and that expert's opinions to allow the expert witness to testify, notwithstanding Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 193.6.
It seems clear that the trial judge erred in asking if there were a written objection or motion to compel. The justices just appeared to think that the error was harmless. The practice tip is that, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, defense counsel should have filed an objection to the expert. What that objection likely would have gotten was the disclosure that should have been made in the first place.Cooper, Hensley, & Marshall's Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Annotated, 2010 ed. (Texas Annotated Code Series)

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