Court Orders Daubert Hearing as Part of Class Certification Analysis

Here's an excerpt from an ABA Litigation Section news report on the trend to conduct full Daubert hearings as part of the class certification process:

In what appears to be part of a trend across the country, a federal trial court in West Virginia has ordered a full, evidentiary Daubert hearing as part of deciding a motion on whether to certify a class in a pending action.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia’s ruling in Rhodes v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. [PDF] follows a number of decisions in federal circuits to allow, or even require, a rigorous analysis of the facts underlying a motion for class certification, although that analysis may stray into the merits of the suit.