United States v. Simmons, 2018 WL 1882827 (E.D. VA 2018)

The expert's education, training and experience were sufficient to qualify her as an expert. The court further held that the subjective nature of the field did not render it unreliable because it was subject to nationwide testing and standards. The court declined to follow Williams v. United States because the expert here did not state their conclusion unequivocally."Accordingly, the Court recommends that so long as the Government can establish that Ms. Moynihan followed industry standards, to wit: documented, in detail, her conclusions in writing and photographs; she did not rely on any undisclosed examiner opinions; and that her conclusions were confirmed by at least one other examiner, and she does not attempt to make outlandish or unsupported pronouncements about her degree of certainty as to her identification conclusions, then there should be no barrier to admissibility, and Ms. Moynihan should be allowed to express her opinions “to a reasonable degree of ballistic or technical certainty” (or any other version of that standard"