Can a witness testify as an expert in the form of an opinion?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Razario, E070591 (Cal. App. 2019):

A witness may testify as an expert, in the form of an opinion, on "a subject that is sufficiently beyond common experience that the opinion of an expert would assist the trier of fact." (Evid. Code, 801, subd. (a).) "That is not to say, however, that the jury need be wholly ignorant of the subject matter of the expert opinion in order for it to be admissible. [Citation.] Rather, expert opinion testimony ' "will be excluded only when it would add nothing at all to the jury's common fund of information, i.e., when 'the subject of inquiry is one of such common knowledge that men of ordinary education could reach

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a conclusion as intelligently as the witness.' " ' " (People v. Jones (2012) 54 Cal.4th 1, 60.)

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