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MDEX Online, Inc. to launch ‘Daubert Tracker’
New service allows trial attorneys and forensic professionals to keep abreast of the latest developments in scientific evidence issues, improve methods of selecting and challenging experts
Chicago, IL August 21, 2001 – MDEX Online, Inc., a full service medical legal consulting company, today announced that its ‘Daubert Tracker’ product will be launched on October 1, 2001.
The product closely follows reported cases in both federal and state courts involving the landmark ‘Daubert’ decision (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals), and its progeny, Kumho Tire (Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael) and Joiner (GE v. Joiner)- considered to be the most important cases to involve scientific evidence in over seventy years.
The product is currently comprised of four key components:
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A searchable database of all reported Daubert, Kumho Tire and Joiner cases to date with a direct link to the full text of the decision. |
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A series of "web lectures" delivered by nationally recognized authorities on Daubert and scientific evidence issues. |
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An email service that notifies the subscriber weekly of all of the latest cases from the previous week, including a summary of each case. |
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A quarterly journal with articles of relevance to Daubert by trial attorneys, law professors, judges and testifying experts. |
The Daubert Tracker is, in part, a collaboration with the legal research company, LEXIS-NEXIS, which supplied the fundamental case data of over 2,500 federal and state court cases dating back to 1993, the year that the Daubert case went to the Supreme Court. The fundamental case data (case summary, citation, court, case type, trial attorneys, etc.) has been supplemented with data garnered by MDEX Online’s legal research team. The researchers have been sifting through each case to build important additional fields of data on which to search- fields not consistently available in any other source. These fields include: the challenged expert’s discipline (i.e. Economics; Psychiatry), area of expertise (i.e. game theory; sexual predation), expert’s full name and the case disposition (admitted/ denied). Once the query results have been displayed, the subscriber can drill down into the details of the case and, if so desired, purchase the full text of any decision in the query through a direct link to the LEXIS-NEXIS website.
The searchable database is meant to be used by trial attorneys as a tool to (1) quickly check whether an opposing expert has previously been challenged in a Daubert hearing and if so, the results of that hearing, (2) screen potential expert witnesses for a “Daubert” history prior to engagement, (3) efficiently prepare for the prosecution or defense of an upcoming challenge of an expert from a specific discipline with a specific area of expertise on specific case issues.
The company has already begun broadcasting a series of web lectures on scientific evidence topics. Lectures are given by law professors and trial attorneys from around the United States and take place monthly. While the lectures themselves are pre-recorded, there is also a live, one-hour “question and answer” session with the lecturer. This session is also recorded and then attached to the original lecture so that attendees can revisit the lecture and ‘Q & A’ in the future whenever they would like.
The email service allows the subscriber to get immediate updates on late breaking cases reported from the week before. When the case is particularly interesting or relevant, the subscriber can click through directly to a summary and/ or the full case citation.
The quarterly journal at this point consists primarily or articles reprinted from forensic and law journals or entire chapters of books on evidence or forensics. Over time the company intends on publishing original articles.
For more information about the Daubert Tracker, please contact:
Daubert Tracker
MDEX Online, Inc.
2859 Central St.
Evanston, IL 60201-1234
866.528.3300 ext. 143
info@mdexonline.com
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