WILLIAM JAMES VS. ROSALIND RUIZ
A-3543-13T2
We address in this appeal the propriety of questioning an expert witness at a civil trial, either on direct or cross- examination, about whether that testifying expert's findings are consistent with those of a non-testifying expert who issued a report in the course of an injured plaintiff's medical treatment. We also consider the propriety of counsel referring to the non-testifying expert's findings in closing argument. We hold that a civil trial attorney may not pose such consistency/inconsistency questions to a testifying expert, where the manifest purpose of those questions is to have the jury consider for their truth the absent expert's hearsay opinions about complex and disputed matters. Even where the questioner's claimed purpose is solely restricted to impeaching the credibility of an adversary's testifying expert, spotlighting that opposing expert's disregard or rejection of the non-testifying expert's complex and disputed opinions, we hold that such questioning ordinarily should be disallowed under N.J.R.E. 403.
Lastly, we hold that the closing arguments of counsel should adhere to these restrictions, so as to prevent the jury from speculating about or misusing an absent expert's complex and disputed findings.
