Canavan's Case

The principal issue in this case is the admission in evidence of the opinions of the employee’s medical expert on diagnosis, disability, and causation. The self-insurer, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, claims that this evidence, under the test set forth in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), and adopted by our Supreme Judicial Court in Commonwealth v. Lanigan, 419 Mass. 15, 26 (1994), should not have been admitted by an administrative judge (judge) in a workers’ compensation hearing to determine the self-insurer’s request to discontinue compensation and the…