June 2019 Newsletter
With summer upon us, many will venture out on the great American road trip to experience the unique features our country has to offer (most, I assume, will travel to see Cowboys Stadium, home of America's team). Like the variety offered by our country's travel destinations, we too see this in application of legal concepts from state to state.
The attached newsletter addresses two important areas of the law – reliability of expert opinions and the economic loss rule – and how the results can be widely different depending on the jurisdiction. We offer sample illustrations from the great states of Texas and Florida (where the Firm actively practices – in addition to Oklahoma and Arkansas). On the expert front, Florida has now finally adopted the federal Daubert standard. Excluding expert testimony is a marvelous tool in litigation, particularly in the construction context where damage calculations and theories of liability are often ad hoc and off the cuff. In terms of the economic loss rule, while Texas remains in the majority that holds that a design professional cannot be sued in tort by parties that do not have a contractual relationship with it, this is not case in Florida. Rather, Florida does allow tort recovery if the specific facts show “control” by the design professional.
Happy summer to all, and I will personally buy a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt for whoever submits the best vacation photo.
