Effective immediately, the Florida Supreme Court recedes from Frye and adopts the Daubert amendment set forth in 90.702 as a procedural rule of evidence.

The Florida Supreme Court has issued a per curiam decision, In re: Amendments to the Florida Evidence Code, SC19-107 (May 23,2019) (Justices Canady, Polston, Lawson, Lagoa, and Muñiz, concurring), adopting the 2013 amendments to 90.702, Fla. Stat., which codified the Daubert standard for admissibility of expert testimony. The majority includes two of the three recently-appointed Justices. In explaining its decision, the Court declined to readdress the correctness of the recent opinion in DeLisle v. Crane Co., 258 So. 3d 1221 (Fla. 2018), in which a majority of the Court (Justices Quince, Pariente, Lewis, and Labarga) had determined that the Frye test previously adopted by the Court was the proper standard and held the 2013 amendments to 90.702 to be unconstitutional, essentially in violation of the Court’s exclusive rule-making authority. Justices Quince, Pariente, and Lewis have since retired from the Court. In effect, the new In re: Amendments decision seems to reject the constitutional deficiency found in DeLisle and implements once again the Daubert test by adopting the 2013 amendments to 90.702 and 90.704 “effective immediately.” (Full opinion available HERE). For more information, please contact us at info@kubickidraper.com.