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Review of Case Materials
Reviews records, documents, testimony, data, and other relevant materials and consults with counsel regarding technical issues related to the matter.
Provide Expert Analysis
Applies specialized knowledge and experience to evaluate the technical or professional issues involved.
Form Expert Opinions
Develops independent, supportable opinions based on the available evidence and relevant standards.
Prepare Expert Reports
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A toxic tort is a civil claim alleging injury caused by exposure to a toxic substance. Depending on the claim and governing law, disputed scientific questions may include whether exposure occurred, whether the substance is capable of causing the alleged condition, the significance of dose and timing, and whether the exposure caused the claimed injury. Cornell's Legal Information Institute notes that toxic tort cases frequently involve technically complex questions of exposure and causation and commonly rely on expert testimony. Because those questions span different scientific fields, one expert should not automatically be expected to address every link in the analysis.
In toxic tort practice, general causation generally concerns whether an agent is capable of causing a particular disease or effect under relevant exposure conditions. Specific causation addresses whether the agent caused the condition in the individual claimant. Whether and how these concepts must be established depends on the governing jurisdiction and facts of the case. Cornell notes that some jurisdictions expressly require proof of both general and specific causation in toxic tort actions. Scientific support may therefore come from different sources, including toxicology, epidemiology, exposure assessment, medical evidence, and dose-response information.
Knowing that a substance can cause harm does not establish that the claimant encountered enough of it, by a relevant route, for the asserted effect to be scientifically plausible. Exposure evidence may address concentration, duration, frequency, route, work or environmental conditions, and uncertainty in historical reconstruction. The Federal Judicial Center's current Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition addresses scientific evidence used in complex litigation, including toxicological evidence and the need to evaluate scientific reasoning within the limits of the available data.
Prepares clear, well-supported expert reports outlining methodology, analysis, findings, and opinions.
Provide Deposition Testimony
Explains findings and opinions under oath and responds to questioning during deposition testimony.
Testify in Court
Presents specialized findings and opinions clearly to judges, juries, arbitrators, or other decision-makers.
Different experts may be needed when the scientific questions cross disciplinary boundaries. An industrial hygienist or exposure scientist may reconstruct exposure; a toxicologist may address dose-response and biological plausibility; an epidemiologist may examine population-level associations; and a physician may assess diagnosis, differential causes, or clinical findings. The important issue is not the number of experts but whether each opinion stays within the expert's qualifications and addresses the particular scientific link that is actually disputed.
