Frye standard

The Frye standard, Frye test, or general acceptance test is a test to determine the admissibility of scientific evidence. It provides that expert opinion based on a scientific technique is admissible only where the technique is generally accepted as reliable in the relevant scientific community. In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1994), the Supreme Court held that the Federal Rules of Evidence superseded Frye as the standard for admissibility of expert evidence in federal courts. Some states, however, still adhere to the Frye standard.

This standard comes from Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923), a case discussing the admissibility of polygraph test as evidence. The Court in Frye held that expert testimony must be based on scientific methods that are sufficiently established and accepted. The court wrote:

Just when a scientific principle or discovery crosses the line between the experimental and demonstrable stages is difficult to define. Somewhere in this twilight zone the evidential force of the principle must be recognized, and while the courts will go a long way in admitting experimental 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. (Emphasis added.)

In many but not all jurisdictions, the Frye standard has been superseded by the Daubert standard. States still following Frye include: California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Effective July 1, 2013, Florida no longer adheres to the Frye standard. The Florida Legislature passed House Bill 7015, and Governor Rick Scott signed it into law. Florida Statutes Chapter 107 (2013) amends Florida’s evidence code to conform to Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the principles applicable in federal court under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), with respect to the admissibility of expert testimony. It was the legislature’s intent to overrule existing Florida Supreme Court precedent that previously rejected Daubert and retained the Frye standard.

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