Daubert and the Appraisal Expert Witness Revisited‪.‬

ABSTRACT Since the Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. decision in 1993, plaintiffs and defendants have used two primary arguments in applying Daubert to expert witness testimony in real estate valuation cases: the use of a methodology and the qualification of an expert witness. This article examines cases involving the methodology used in real estate valuation situations and finds that although Daubert identifies four factors (theory testing, peer review and publication, known rate of error, and general acceptance) for the courts to consider, these factors have been interpreted differently in various courts. Several cases are summarized and the significance of different interpretations in the application of Daubert is noted.