Insights & Events

Hollingsworth LLP and Atlantic Legal Foundation (ALF) filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Exxon Mobil Corporation (“ExxonMobil”) seeking reargument en banc of a Pennsylvania Superior Court panel’s decision finding ExxonMobil waived most of its expert admissibility challenges. The brief argues that the appellate panel misapplied Pennsylvania’s issue-preservation rules and, as a result, no court, trial or appellate, has ever examined whether the plaintiffs’ experts applied a generally accepted scientific methodology in a conventional way pursuant to Pennsylvania’s Frye standard and Pa. R.E. 702. The brief warns that when no court performs an expert testimony gatekeeping review, juries are left to sort out complex science through cross-examination alone. As the Pennsylvania Superior Court recognized in Blum v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 705 A.2d 1314 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1997), aff’d, 764 A.2d 1 (Pa. 2000), that is a result which taints “the integrity of the trial process.”

Hollingsworth LLP remains dedicated to emphasizing the crucial role state and federal courts play in ensuring that junk science does not reach a jury.

Read the Atlantic Legal Foundation news release.