FL H0391

Amends Florida Statute 90.702 to allow expert witnesses qualified by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education to testify in the form of opinions if the testimony is based on sufficient facts or data, uses reliable principles and methods, and applies those principles reliably to the case facts.

Removes the requirement that expert opinions must be "applicable to evidence at trial," expanding the scope of permissible expert testimony.

Requires Florida courts to interpret and apply expert testimony standards in accordance with the Daubert, Joiner, and Kumho Tire U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Eliminates reliance on the Frye standard and subsequent Florida decisions that applied or implemented Frye as the test for expert testimony.

Amends Florida Statute 90.704 to prohibit disclosure of otherwise inadmissible facts or data to the jury unless the court determines their probative value in evaluating the expert's opinion substantially outweighs their prejudicial effect.

Effective date: July 1, 2011.