An estimated 80% of all cases that go to trial in California involve one or more experts. The California Supreme Court’s decision in Sargon v. University of Southern California significantly changed the standards for the admissibility of expert opinion in California trial courts.

Formal Opinion No. 2015-193 of the Standing Committee On Professional Responsibility and Conduct of the California State Bar (“Committee Opinion”) opines that an attorney may violate ethical duties of competence by failing to understand and perform e-discovery skills. The Committee Opinion set out a list of nine e-discovery tasks that “attorneys handling e-discovery should be able to perform (either by themselves or in association with competent counsel or expert consultants).”