The Tennessee General Assembly has adopted rule changes proposed by the Tennessee Supreme Court. This is one of multiple posts discussing the new rules of most interest to tort lawyers.
Rule 26 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure has been changed to increase the disclosures required for expert witnesses. The new rule requires that
the party shall disclose the witness’s qualifications ( including a list of all publications authored in the previous ten years), a list of all other cases in which. during the previous four vears, the witness testified as an expert. and a statement of the compensation to be paid for the study and testimony in the case.
The Advisory Commission Comment states the reason for the rule change:
The sentence added to Rule 26.02(4)(A)(i) concerning discovery of information about those intended to be called as expert witnesses at trial is designed to minimize the cost of learning additional information about an opposing party’s expert witnesses. The change permitting the discovery of a list of cases where the expert gave testimony during the previous four years includes expert testimony given in a hearing, deposition, trial, administrative or arbitration proceeding. The list should include the case name, docket number and jurisdiction for court and administrative proceedings and, for arbitrations, information sufficient for the recipient to identify the counsel to the parties in the arbitration.
The rule change goes into effect on July 1, 2011