"Off-the-cuff" decision fails to satisfy Daubert gate-keeping requirements

Adamscheck v. American Family Mutual Insurance Company, 818 F.3d 576 (3/29/16) (Col.) (Published) - Although a civil case, the expert holding might be useful for challenging the exclusion of a defense expert. The 10th holds the district court failed to engage in its required Daubert gatekeeping function when it made an "off-the-cuff decision based solely on an equivocal one-sentence description of the biochemical engineering expert's testimony by the party opposing its admission." Counsel opposing the admission described the testimony as opining the plaintiff couldn't have been hurt in the type of accident that occurred. The district court made no fact findings and only stated that all-rear-end accidents are different.