2,764 Words on Inconsistencies in the Jurisprudence of Expert Disclosure. And Some Other Stuff . . .

Staub v. Kiley, No. C071500 (D3 June 16, 2014)

This med-mal case addresses the expert witness disclosure process under Code of Civil Procedure § 2034.010, et seq. Rather frustratingly, it creates a split of authority with another case from the same district. The two cases were decided within a day of each other, although this case was not ordered published until a month later. Worse, the justice who authored this decision joined the opinion in the previously published case. So we don’t just have an inter-district, an inter-division, or even an intra-division split. It’s a split between two opinions joined by the same justice over a two-day period. By publishing an opinion logically irreconcilable with its own prior published opinion, without so much as recognizing the conflict, the court does a disservice to litigants and trial judges throughout the state, who will be left to muddle through the inconsistent results.