Under the bill, experts would have to restrict their testimony to facts and data. How do you determine if the testimony is based on facts and data? You hold a hearing. And hearings take time, especially when lawyers have a chance to cross examine the potential expert witness in the mind-numbing fashion that lawyers do when they see a chance to advance their case. And the price tag for experts goes up because the experts won't be experiential experts, they'll be people who testify for a living. And many will have to make a separate flight just to attend the Daubert hearing. Moreover, in federal court, where Daubert is the standard, there is a rule, which Wisconsin doesn't have, limiting cross examination, according to Rottier. In Wisconsin, attorneys can cross examine until a judge can find a reason to shut them up.

Critics of the Daubert standard say it will require more judges, more prosecutors, more state-paid defense attorneys.

In a Jan. 10 letter to legislative leaders, the four circuit judges in Dodge County urged lawmakers to reject Daubert for variety of reasons. Not only will it help defense attorneys knock experiential witnesses off the stand, they say, it could undercut the state's sexual predator law by allowing extensive challenges to the testimony of the psychiatrists who predict how dangerous defendants are.

And Daubert would cost money.