In a review I wrote last February (Daubert Tool Lets Lawyers Track Expert’s History, I recommended lawyers try The Daubert Tracker, an expert-witness service whose central feature is a database of all reported decisions interpreting and applying Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals and Kumho Tire v. Carmichael, backed up when available by full-text briefs, transcripts and docket entries. Subsequent to that review, the Daubert Tracker added recent cases applying Frye v. United States, the 1928 Supreme Court decision requiring the exclusion of scientific evidence that is unproven or experimental.

Now, the service is preparing to unveil major enhancements at ATLA’s annual meeting July 19-23 in San Francisco, including the addition of thousands of cases. Planned enhancements are:

  • Addition of state cases, such as the 1976 California decision adopting Frye, People v. Kelly, and its progeny. CEO Myles Levin said his staff identified the seminal cases for each state, collected all cases that cited them, and tracked down the experts’ names and areas of expertise.
  • Addition of unreported cases, including pretrial evidentiary hearings. The database will include more than 4,000 unreported cases, Levin said.
  • Ability to search by rule. Levin’s staff found that many Daubert-type cases cited the applicable rule of evidence – most often Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence – but never mentioned the Daubert decision. He located 3,600 such cases and was adding them to the database, along with the ability to search cases by cited rule.

    As I wrote in my original review, a key area in which the The Daubert Tracker distinguishes itself from other case law databases is that, even if the case never mentions the expert’s name or expertise, The Daubert Tracker provides it. “We track down the name of the expert even if it is not mentioned in the case,” Levin said. “Also, we accurately assign a discipline. We don’t take for granted the judge’s characterization of the discipline.”

    Also since my original review, the service changed its subscription structure to include a $10 half-hour session. A two-hour session remains $25 and a year subscription is $495. For $10, a lawyer would be remiss not to check an expert through the Daubert Tracker.

  • Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

    Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.