Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Insufficiently Detailed 26(a)(2)(C) Expert Disclosures

Sapienza v. U.S. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75928 (E.D.N.Y. May 31, 2012):

The defendant ... argues that even if the doctors are permitted to provide expert testimony without providing a report under 26(a)(2)(B), the summary that the plaintiff provided under Rule 26(a)(2)(C) is insufficient. Specifically, the defendant argues that the summary is devoid of facts supporting the doctor's opinions. Although courts are to take care in requiring undue detail, the Rule does mandate the disclosure of the facts supporting the expert opinions to be offered by the witness. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(C) advisory committee's note. Here, the court agrees that the summaries are insufficient. For example, the summary of Dr. Colantonio refers to "numerous operations" that were performed rather than specifying the nature of each of the operations. Similarly, the summary does not make clear whether the doctor's conclusion that "the perforation and deadly infection were caused by negligence" was based only on the minimal facts included in the summary. Dr. Anghel's summary contains no facts supporting her opinion that the seriousness of the infection was caused by the defendant's negligence. Accordingly, if the plaintiff intends to have Drs. Colantonio and Anghel offer their expert opinions as to causation and the plaintiff's prognosis, the plaintiff must provide the defendants with revised summaries by June 15, 2012.

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