Often the Link Between Damages and Causation Even with established liability, a plaintiff seeking damages must be able to calculate damages with reasonable certainty and demonstrate a causal link between the defendant’s acts and the plaintiff’s injury. The concept of causation is simple—did a defendant’s wrongful act cause the plaintiff’s damages? Proving causation, however, is not always as simple. Many times, damage experts simply assume causation. However, courts sometimes reject a finding on causation, and therefore the resulting damages, when an expert fails to consider alternative factors that could have caused or contributed to the plaintiff’s damages. Accordingly, a damage…
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As the temperature drops and the holidays creep in, case after case either settles or, even better, is granted a three-month continuance. Now you finally have the time to take a long hard look at the lessons you have learned this year, lessons you have applied from years past, and start defining next year’s conquest(s), whatever they may be. This fourth article of the Unimpeachable Neutrality series discusses how the lessons learned help to define and conquer the next 365 days
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Practical Applications in Unimpeachable Neutrality Expert witnesses in the fields of forensic accounting, matrimonial litigation, and business valuation must possess a thorough understanding of the applicable standards, case law, evidentiary rules, and regulations specific to each engagement to effectively help the court understand the facts and evidence. The already daunting task of interpreting these rules becomes increasingly fleeting when those parameters act as moving targets whose relevance or obsolescence may be subject to change in an instant based upon legal decisions, newly promulgated standards, or pronouncements. This third article from the unimpeachable neutrality series, discusses 10 time tested and unimpeachable…
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Differences Between the Two Values Damages remedies often focus on lost profits and lost business value, with such remedies typically calculated by financial experts. There continues to be a trend in the courts to preclude experts from testifying, or to disregard them altogether because their opinion does not meet the reasonable certainty standard. Either of these outcomes can be a devastating result for the client. These results occur, in part, from a lack in understanding of the proper calculation of lost profits or lost value. A relevant and reliable opinion, able to withstand the court’s scrutiny in litigation, needs to…
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Effective Trial Preparation and Presentations What is the role of a financial expert? How important is the financial expert? In this article, the author answers these questions and shares his experience serving as a damage expert.
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Cram Down Interest Rates (Part I of II) In this two-part series the author provides an overview of the issues confronted by courts and financial experts involved in a commercial real estate (CRE) bankruptcy. In this first part, the author discusses how a financial expert may go about to determine the appropriate interest rate for the underlying claims and analyze the CRE market. In the second part of this series, the author continues this discussion and provides examples that illustrate the approaches discussed in this two-part series.
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Arbitration Panels Don’t Know Everything a Financial Expert Does. But That Doesn’t Mean You Should Even Consider Talking Down to Them. Arbitration is somewhat similar to a bench trial, but experts need to present opinions somewhat differently than if they were testifying in a jury trial—and this is particularly true with experts testifying on financial issues such as economic damages. Joe Epps explains why.