California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Campbell v. General Motors Corp., 184 Cal.Rptr. 891, 32 Cal.3d 112, 649 P.2d 224 (Cal. 1982):
This question was not one that required expert testimony. "Although courts have not always used the same language, the decisive consideration in determining the [necessity] of expert opinion evidence is whether the subject of inquiry is one of such common knowledge that [persons] of ordinary education could reach a conclusion as intelligently as the witness or whether, on the other hand, the matter is sufficiently beyond common experience that the opinion of an expert [is required]." (People v. Cole (1956) 47 Cal.2d 99, 103, 301 P.2d 854; see Evid. Code, 801.)
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