Caught in the valuation crossfire, judges fire back with Rule 706 experts
It’s not unusual for a federal court to appoint a technical expert as an independent advisor pursuant to Rule 706 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. But now, in two high-pressure and high-profile legal settings, judges have taken the unusual step of appointing a 706 expert to testify specifically on valuation—in one case, to calculate [...]
Which business valuation certification is the best for expert witnesses?
If you’re attempting to hire a financial expert, you’ve run into the alphabet soup of certifications in the US. Four different organizations certify business appraisers (the American Society of Appraisers, the AICPA, NACVA, and the Institute of Business Appraisers). And, that’s before you get into the world of fraud examiners, CFAs, Ph.D’s, and all the [...]
What has your financial expert published? Make sure you know.
If you want a lesson on how an expert can be “hoisted on his own petard,” look for the complete digest and the court’s opinion of Nelson v. Walnut Investment Partners, Ltd., 2011 WL 2711318 (S.D. Ohio)(July 13, 2011) to be posted soon at BVLaw. What happened? Opposing counsel know that an expert’s published articles and statements [...]
Google outlines legal strategy in Oracle expert challenge
BVLaw Alert has blogged a couple of times about Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc., on the Java code allegedly found in Android software and on Google strategy. Oracle hired Boston University professor Iain Cockburn—the extensively published academic—to calculate and prove the alleged damages. Our reading of Google’s pre-Daubert challenge filing indicates that they will attack his credentials. For [...]
Want to Daubert the opposing expert? You’ll succeed 50% of the time.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1999 Kumho Tire decision expanded Daubert’s reach to financial experts. PricewaterhouseCoopers has just released its Daubert Challenges to Financial Experts:An 11-year study of trends and outcomes, which surveys federal cases since Kumho. As always, the PwC study highlights the continuing trend to use Daubert as a pre-trial weapon to attack economic experts and evidence in damages and [...]
Plaintiff claims expert with no industry experience cannot rebut loss of use damages
Level 3 Communications v. Floyd, 2011 WL 11000078 (M.D. Tenn.)(March 22, 2011) While excavating a residential subdivision, a general contractor severed a traffic-bearing cable belonging to the plaintiff, a telecommunications provider. Fortunately, the plaintiff had invested in spare, emergency capacity on which it could “roll” customer call traffic until repairs could restore the damaged cable. [...]
Even Ibbotson can be challenged by aggressive defense counsel
Two related cases (Metro Tech Corp. v. TUV Rheinland of N.A., 2010 WL 4117123 (D. Puerto Rico.)(Oct. 18, 2010); and Metro Tech Corp. v. TUV Rheinland of N.A., 2010 WL 4117115 (D. Puerto Rico.)(Oct. 18, 2010)) show how far opposing counsel will go to discredit the testimony of a financial expert. In this case, the [...]
Which kind of expert succeeds in economic damages cases?
Not many published court opinions give meaningful guidance on determining the discount rate in economic damages case (see BVWire #92-5). A new decision concerning lost profits for the breach of a franchise lease finds the plaintiff’s BV analyst going against a real estate appraiser, with the win going to—wait for it . . . the [...]
New case digests added to BVLaw
Metro Tech Corp. v. TUV Rheinland of N.A., 2010 WL 4117123 (D. Puerto Rico.)(Oct. 18, 2010); and Metro Tech Corp. v. TUV Rheinland of N.A., 2010 WL 4117115 (D. Puerto Rico.)(Oct. 18, 2010) Court limits damages to breach of contract to those that can be ascertained with reasonable certainty, and qualifies first-time lost profits plaintiff’s [...]
New cases added to Business Valuation Law
These new cases and others are being added to the Business Valuation Law database this week: Wilson v. Wilson, 2010 WL 4723461 (W. Va.)(Sept. 21, 2010) West Virginia Supreme Court finds that construction management fees, conditioned on completion of a project, are analogous to attorney contingency fee contracts and subject to same rules of equitable [...]
Share your thoughts..