The Tax Court Says Certified A recent Tax Court opinion brought to light the importance of having an appraiser designation from a professional appraiser organization. While the decision is limited to Tax Court cases, it provides a cautionary tale for all who provide business appraisals in litigious situations. A recent Tax Court opinion brought to light the importance of having an appraiser designation from ...

The Death of Testimonial Overstatement The proper interpretation for the standard of admissibility under the amended Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence will hopefully result in an evidentiary change that flies in the face of every hired gun’s essence, as the real impact of the trial court truly being a gatekeeper is that it will shield the jury from the testimonial overstatement salaciously proffered ...

Rosenthal v. Erber illustrates the pressure and perils of dueling experts. The expert is charged with assisting the court ascertain the facts, rather than furthering the client’s ambition. The case is a reminder to business valuation professionals that ethical considerations are paramount and that doing the contrary leads to courts’ suspecting the role of experts in the process. In the main, valuation exper ...

The Role of a Neutral Third-Party Valuation Expert as an Umpire in Partnership Deadlocks Partnerships are common structures in professional service practices, offering opportunities for synergistic collaboration. However, conflicts can arise, especially in the absence of a well-contemplated equitable profit-sharing formula and a deadlock-breaking mechanism in the partnership contract. This article explores ...

An Unimpeachable Cure for Delusive Exactness This 15th article of the unimpeachable neutrality series discusses the pathology, symptoms, and treatment for a bad case of delusive exactness. Delusive exactness affects thousands of financial experts every day and can be fatal to a case if left untreated. On balance, delusive exactness, as described herein, refers to the testimonial delirium exhibited by a fina ...

At a Deposition or Court Hearing To begin to understand the subject, we must point out that the “Reglas de Evidencia de Puerto Rico” (the Puerto Rico Rules of Evidence) and the Federal Rules of Evidence adopted in the district of Puerto Rico—which is part of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals—allow for expert testimony to be inserted into the "record" of a case in a deposition or in a court hearing, are ba ...

End of Life or Another Day at the Office? One of the most concerning communications for experts to receive from a hiring attorney is the opposing attorney has filed a Daubert motion to exclude their opinion. Going through a Daubert challenge is stressful for even experienced experts. This article will discuss the Daubert decision and its impact on experts. It will also address questions considered by courts ...

Changes in the Methods of Dispute Resolution In this article, Steven I. Platt, a retired Maryland Circuit Court judge, founder of The Platt Group, Inc., and QuickRead’s newest editorial board member, shares with readers the changes he sees affecting civil court proceedings, rise of alternative dispute resolutions, and opportunities that are becoming available to credentialed business valuation and financial ...

To Create a Visual Picture Every profession has its own unique vocabulary, and although everyone in the field understands the terms or abbreviations, the public most likely does not. An easy way to help people understand technical terms or a profession's distinctive vocabulary is to create a “word picture” that links that unique word to some everyday idea or object. The author suggests that metaphors and si ...

Apropos Restrictions of Data, Time, and Financial Resources When uncertainty rises to a level—where facts appear to be indistinguishable from fiction—business valuation, forensic accounting, and litigation support must prioritize the virtues of unimpeachable neutrality, integrity, and objectivity. These three virtues provide a means of best assisting the trier of fact in distinguishing that which is mislead ...

Lost Profits and Loss of Business Value—Differences and Correlation in Terms of the Harmful Impact to Plaintiff’s Claims When a plaintiff suffers, or believes to have suffered, economic damages as a result of a defendant’s actions in a civil matter he/she and their attorney are faced with determining the amount of economic damage suffered. A damages remedy is provided to restore the plaintiff to the same ec ...

An Appraiser in Court This is a review of Henry J. Wise’s, MAI, CBA, BVAL, CRE (Retired) recently released book, It’s Only an Opinion: An Appraiser in Court. In this book, comprised of 23 chapters, Mr. Wise is not only humorous but also insightful. He shares several nuggets from his 35-years of experience testifying in court on real estate controversies. He offers valuable information to business appraisers ...

The Role of the Expert in 21st Century Dispute Resolution—A Recovering Judge’s Perspective As technology evolves, the role of the expert and the interplay between experts and the judiciary will evolve. This change is already underway. In this article, QuickRead presents the presentation made by Retired Judge Platt at the NACVA and the CTI’s Annual Consultants’ Conference, held in Salt Lake City. Judge Platt ...

Case Study of a Real Estate Developer For most lost profits cases, the losses begin at the date of the harmful act and end when the injured party is returned to the position it would have had “but for” the alleged damaging act of the defendant. However, not every lost profit matter is a breach of contract where beginning and ending dates can be easily defined. Sometimes losses may not occur until a period i ...

Principles, Methods, and Applications Everett P. Harry, III and Jeffrey H. Kinrich assembled 45 authors, chosen for their expertise in lost profits damages, and contributed and co-edited this comprehensive lost profits damages “how to” book. The authors pay tribute to Robert L. Dunn, among others, for his vision in identifying the need for this book. The book marks an attempt by the authors to provide a sin ...

Insights for Your Practice Four cases are presented in this article that provide valuation, litigation support professionals, and M&A advisors insight regarding how courts are addressing damages claims, challenges to experts, appraisal action challenges, and claims of fraud and breach of contract in connection with M&A transactions. Although the cases are from Delaware and California, they provide i ...

The Case of the Delayed Real Estate Development In a situation where there is a claim of wrongdoing and one party suffers pecuniary damages, it is incumbent on the economic damages expert to precisely define the period of such claimed damages to properly quantify them. The outcome is largely dependent on the expert’s processes for determining damages, the components of the Expert Report, and the ability to ...

How to Tell the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth The often-unspoken truth is that many deposition or cross-examination questions that expert witnesses in the field of forensic accounting, business valuation, or matrimonial litigation will be asked are written to make the truth sound like a lie and a lie sound like the gospel. This second article of the Unimpeachable Neutrality series offers proactive t ...

7 Keys to Becoming a Visible Expert In this article, Dr. Frederiksen discusses seven keys to becoming a visible expert. ...

How to Silence the Hired Gun While evidentiary rules and ethical codes issued by professional bodies like the NACVA and AICPA prohibit accounting and valuation experts from taking an advocate position, the adversarial nature of the U.S. legal system creates a market which at times demands a “hired gun” expert witness who caters their opinion of damages or business value to that which most convincingly favor ...