Guarding the Gate to the Courthouse: How Trial Judges Are Using Their Evidentiary Screening Role to Remake Tort Causation Rules

Authors

Lucinda M. Finley, University at Buffalo School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 1999

Rights

Abstract

The article looks at what trial judges are actually doing in toxic tort cases in the post-Daubert world; it reviews and critiques cases in which judges have in effect adopted a new rule of causation law that requires plaintiffs to rely on epidemiology, and in particular epidemiology that demonostrates an increase in relative risk of 2.0 or greater; the article considers the substantive as well as the normative implications of this legal treatment of epidemiology.

Publication Title

DePaul Law Review

First Page

335

Last Page

376

Recommended Citation

Lucinda M. Finley, Guarding the Gate to the Courthouse: How Trial Judges Are Using Their Evidentiary Screening Role to Remake Tort Causation Rules, 49 DePaul L. Rev. 335 (1999).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles/196