Well, that didn’t take long.  In its first week of political life, the new legislature has proposed sweeping “tort reform” legislation.  The compass of the 30-plus page bill is manifold, embracing punitive damages, fee shifting, product liability claims, and damages caps.  What interests me more, however, are proposed changes to the Wisconsin Rules of Evidence governing expert opinion testimony.  For years, some have bemoaned Wisconsin’s failure to adopt the so-called Daubert rule (see below), an often restrictive, ad hoc standard that ostensibly identifies those “reliable” expert methodologies worthy of consideration by the courts.  Unreliable methods, of course, are excluded.  And while courts and commentators still debate how one goes about reliably identifying reliable methodologies, Wisconsin will apparently make up for lost time by not only adopting Daubert, but also go it one better by requiring that expert methodologies be “true” as well as reliable.

True in what sense you ask?  Well, it’s unclear, although I concede it has a nice Old Testament ring to it and the idea that courts should use “true” evidence is appealing in all senses of that word.  While you’re pondering what “true” might mean (and I still am), let me offer some background.