What are the Legal Standards for Determining the Reliability of a Scientific Opinion?



The Frye test has been superseded in Federal Courts by Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals as of 1993, but may still be used in some State Courts.



FRYE v. UNITED STATES
293 F. 1013, 1014 (DC Cir. 1923)

"Just when a scientific principle or discovery crosses the line between the experimental and the demonstrable stages is difficult to define. Somewhere in this twilight zone the evidential force of the principle must be recognized, and while courts will go a long way in admitting expert testimony deduced from a well-recognized scientific principle or discovery, the thing from which the deduction is made must be sufficiently established to have gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs."