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 BackHOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Committee Report
| Legislation: | HB 227 |
| Sponsor: | Valihura |
| Long Title: | AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 28, TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE TO PERMIT QUALIFIED ENGINEERS TO TESTIFY AS EXPERTS IN THE DELAWARE COURTS. |
| Committee: | JUDICIARY |
| Number of Committee Members: | 8 |
| Date of Report: | 06/20/2007 |
| Committee Vote: | Favorable: | On Its Merits: | Unfavorable: |
| 0 | 5 | 0 |
Purpose of the Bill : This Delaware Professional Engineers Act, 24 Del.C. § 2801 et. Seq., regulates the practice of engineering in this State. Recent decisions of the Delaware Superior Court have interpreted the Delaware Professional Engineers Act as establishing a prohibition against out-of-state engineers’ testifying as expert witnesses under Delaware Uniform Rule of Evidence 702. This prohibition has the effect of artificially and unfairly limiting the availability of otherwise qualified engineers who can testify in Delaware trial proceedings on matters requiring engineering skill and expertise. This Amendment will permit qualified engineers who are licensed in other states to offer expert testimony in Delaware Courts, which has always been the case until the recent Superior Court decisions.
Committee Findings: Craig Lyeson of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association explained that the bill was necessary so that engineers could testify as expert witnesses in trial despite not being licensed in Delaware. He explained that this was the case for other professional expert witnesses like doctors. The committee supported the bill without questions.
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