Don Willenburg, chair of the firm's Appellate Practice Group, is the lead author of "People v. Sanchez: Hearsay and Expert Testimony" published in the newest issue of California Litigation. He and his co-authors are described by the publication's editor as "a trio of appellate luminaries." In the article, Willenburg and co-authors Professor Gary Watt (Hastings) and John Taylor, Jr. describe how this criminal law decision remakes the law, including in civil practice, with regard to what an expert witness can do with hearsay. No more “don’t worry, we’ll get it in through our expert.” No more “the jury is not to consider the expert’s sources for their truth.” No more relating to the jury by an expert witness of the content of case-specific hearsay statements. The new rules apply to all expert witnesses in California courts, and require more planning and discovery than many counsel are used to.
To read the article in full, please click here.
Don Willenburg is a partner in the Oakland and San Francisco offices of Gordon & Rees, and leader of the firm's Appellate Practice Group. He is past chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and presently chairs the amicus briefs committee of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada. Willenburg has extensive experience in appeals and writs, as well as dispositive trial court motions, in a variety of substantive areas of the law, including product liability, employment, and construction.