Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford today joined the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors to present the Florida Chamber’s Most Valuable Legislator award to Representative Larry Metz. The Chamber said Rep. Metz received the honor for “his unwavering determination and steadfast leadership to remove junk science from the courtroom and improve Florida’s legal climate.”
Updating the state’s expert evidence standard from the 90-year-old Frye Standard to the Daubert Standard has long-been a priority of the Florida Chamber’s Coalition for Legal Reform. During the 2013 legislative session, lawmakers passed HB 7015, expert evidence legal reform, and Governor Rick Scott signed it into law last week.
“Thanks to the great work of Rep. Metz, Florida’s expert evidence standards now move into the 21st Century and join 20 other states already using a pure Daubert Standard – a multi-faceted test to determine the admissibility of expert testimony,” said David Hart, Executive Vice President for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. “Updating Florida’s expert evidence standards will help improve on Florida’s 41st worst legal climate ranking and will allow Florida’s state courts to join the U.S. Supreme Court, all federal courts and every state in the Southeast in using the Daubert Standard.”
For Rep. Metz, the third time was the charm. For three years in a row, Rep. Metz sponsored the Florida Chamber’s legal reform priority to modernize expert testimony standards.
“With strong leadership for the Florida Chamber of Commerce, many interested parties came together and supported this important legislation,” said Rep. Metz. “Replacing the antiquated 90-year-old Frye standard with the modern Daubert standard will empower Florida judges to vet expert testimony for reliability and accuracy. This honor must be shared with many others responsible for the passage of this legislation, including the outstanding Senate sponsor, President Pro Tempore Garrett Richter, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Tom Lee, House Judiciary Committee Chair Dennis Baxley, and Speaker Will Weatherford.”
Previous winners have included: Speaker Dean Cannon (2012), Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff (2011), Senator John Thrasher (2010), Sen. Richter (2009), Representative Dennis Ross (2008), Representative Stan Mayfield (2007), Representative Don Brown (2006), and Representative Allan Bense (2005).
