The Product Liability Advisory Council, the American Tort Reform Association, the Washington Legal Foundation and the Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform are among the groups wading into a dispute before the state Supreme Court over what role trial courts can play when evaluating experts under the Frye standard.
The amicus brief was filed in the closely-watched case Walsh v. BASF, in which the Superior Court said that a trial court went too far in evaluating the basis for an expert’s opinion as part of a Frye inquiry. The Supreme Court granted allocatur in March, to specifically determine whether the Superior Court erred in holding that “trial courts are not permitted to act as ‘gatekeepers.’”
